Screens in aging-relevant human ALS-motor neurons identify MAP4Ks as therapeutic targets for the disease.

Effective therapeutics is much needed for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease mainly affecting motor neurons. By screening chemical compounds in human patient-derived and aging-relevant motor neurons, we identify a neuroprotective compound and show that MAP4Ks may serve as therapeutic targets for treating ALS. The lead compound broadly improves survival and function of motor neurons directly converted from human ALS patients. Mechanistically, it works as an inhibitor of MAP4Ks, regulates the MAP4Ks-HDAC6-TUBA4A-RANGAP1 pathway, and normalizes subcellular distribution of RANGAP1 and TDP-43. Finally, in an ALS mouse model we show that inhibiting MAP4Ks preserves motor neurons and significantly extends animal lifespan.

Chemical screens in aging-relevant human motor neurons identify MAP4Ks as therapeutic targets for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Effective therapeutics is much needed for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease mainly affecting motor neurons. By screening chemical compounds in human patient-derived and aging-relevant motor neurons, we identify a neuroprotective compound and show that MAP4Ks may serve as therapeutic targets for treating ALS. The lead compound broadly improves survival and function of motor neurons directly converted from human ALS patients. Mechanistically, it works as an inhibitor of MAP4Ks, regulates the MAP4Ks-HDAC6-TUBA4A-RANGAP1 pathway, and normalizes subcellular distribution of RANGAP1 and TDP-43. Finally, in an ALS mouse model we show that inhibiting MAP4Ks preserves motor neurons and significantly extends animal lifespan.

Natural variations in grain length 10 (GL10) regulate rice grain size.

Grain size is an important determinant of grain weight and yield in rice. Although several genes related to grain size have been identified, natural variations in these genes that affect grain size are poorly characterized. Here, we describe the grain length QTL GL10, encoding MADS56, which positively regulates grain length and grain weight. A natural allelic variation of NIL-gl10, containing an ∼1.0-kb deletion in the first exon that abolishes its transcription, results in shorter grain length, lower grain weight and delayed flowering in gl10 plants. The knockout of GL10 in the HJX74 background leads to grain phenotypes similar to that of NIL-gl10, while overexpression of GL10 results in increased grain length and weight and earlier heading date. GL10 regulates grain length by promoting greater longitudinal cell growth in the grain glume. Additionally, GL10 participates in the regulation of gibberellic acid (GA) signaling pathway genes in young panicle tissues. Analysis of GL10 haplotypes shows obvious divergence between the japonica and indica lineages. Our findings reveal an allelic variation of GL10 that may explain differences in grain length among modern cultivars and could be used to breed rice varieties with optimized grain shape.

Revisiting astrocyte to neuron conversion with lineage tracing in vivo.

In vivo cell fate conversions have emerged as potential regeneration-based therapeutics for injury and disease. Recent studies reported that ectopic expression or knockdown of certain factors can convert resident astrocytes into functional neurons with high efficiency, region specificity, and precise connectivity. However, using stringent lineage tracing in the mouse brain, we show that the presumed astrocyte-converted neurons are actually endogenous neurons. AAV-mediated co-expression of NEUROD1 and a reporter specifically and efficiently induces reporter-labeled neurons. However, these neurons cannot be traced retrospectively to quiescent or reactive astrocytes using lineage-mapping strategies. Instead, through a retrograde labeling approach, our results reveal that endogenous neurons are the source for these viral-reporter-labeled neurons. Similarly, despite efficient knockdown of PTBP1 in vivo, genetically traced resident astrocytes were not converted into neurons. Together, our results highlight the requirement of lineage-tracing strategies, which should be broadly applied to studies of cell fate conversions in vivo.

GW10, a member of P450 subfamily regulates grain size and grain number in rice.

KEY MESSAGE: A quantitative trait locus GW10 is located on Chromosome 10 by map-based cloning, which encodes a P450 Subfamily protein. The GW10 regulates grain size and grain number in rice involved in the BR pathway. Grain size and grain number play extremely important roles in rice grain yield. Here, we identify GW10, which encodes a P450 subfamily protein and controls grain size and grain number by using Lemont (tropical japonica) as donor parent and HJX74 (indica) as recipient parent. The GW10 locus was mapped into a 14.6 kb region in HJX74 genomic on the long arm of chromosome 10. Lower expression of the gw10 in panicle is contributed to the shorter and narrower rice grain, and the increased number of grains per panicle. In contrast, overexpression of GW10 is contributed to longer and wider rice grain. Furthermore, the higher expression levels of some of the brassinosteroid (BR) biosynthesis and response genes are associated with the NIL-GW10. The sensitivity of the leaf angle to exogenous BR in NIL-GW10 is lower than that in NIL-gw10 and in the KO-GW10, which implied that the GW10 should involve in the brassinosteroid-mediated regulation of rice grain size and grain number.

Disease Modeling with Human Neurons Reveals LMNB1 Dysregulation Underlying DYT1 Dystonia.

DYT1 dystonia is a hereditary neurologic movement disorder characterized by uncontrollable muscle contractions. It is caused by a heterozygous mutation in Torsin A (TOR1A), a gene encoding a membrane-embedded ATPase. While animal models provide insights into disease mechanisms, significant species-dependent differences exist since animals with the identical heterozygous mutation fail to show pathology. Here, we model DYT1 by using human patient-specific cholinergic motor neurons (MNs) that are generated through either direct conversion of patients' skin fibroblasts or differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These human MNs with the heterozygous TOR1A mutation show reduced neurite length and branches, markedly thickened nuclear lamina, disrupted nuclear morphology, and impaired nucleocytoplasmic transport (NCT) of mRNAs and proteins, whereas they lack the perinuclear "blebs" that are often observed in animal models. Furthermore, we uncover that the nuclear lamina protein LMNB1 is upregulated in DYT1 cells and exhibits abnormal subcellular distribution in a cholinergic MNs-specific manner. Such dysregulation of LMNB1 can be recapitulated by either ectopic expression of the mutant TOR1A gene or shRNA-mediated downregulation of endogenous TOR1A in healthy control MNs. Interestingly, downregulation of LMNB1 can largely ameliorate all the cellular defects in DYT1 MNs. These results reveal the value of disease modeling with human patient-specific neurons and indicate that dysregulation of LMNB1, a crucial component of the nuclear lamina, may constitute a major molecular mechanism underlying DYT1 pathology.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Inaccessibility to patient neurons greatly impedes our understanding of the pathologic mechanisms for dystonia. In this study, we employ reprogrammed human patient-specific motor neurons (MNs) to model DYT1, the most severe hereditary form of dystonia. Our results reveal disease-dependent deficits in nuclear morphology and nucleocytoplasmic transport (NCT). Most importantly, we further identify LMNB1 dysregulation as a major contributor to these deficits, uncovering a new pathologic mechanism for DYT1 dystonia.

Aging-relevant human basal forebrain cholinergic neurons as a cell model for Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an adult-onset mental disorder with aging as a major risk factor. Early and progressive degeneration of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs) contributes substantially to cognitive impairments of AD. An aging-relevant cell model of BFCNs will critically help understand AD and identify potential therapeutics. Recent studies demonstrate that induced neurons directly reprogrammed from adult human skin fibroblasts retain aging-associated features. However, human induced BFCNs (hiBFCNs) have yet to be achieved. METHODS: We examined a reprogramming procedure for the generation of aging-relevant hiBFCNs through virus-mediated expression of fate-determining transcription factors. Skin fibroblasts were obtained from healthy young persons, healthy adults and sporadic AD patients. Properties of the induced neurons were examined by immunocytochemistry, qRT-PCR, western blotting, and electrophysiology. RESULTS: We established a protocol for efficient generation of hiBFCNs from adult human skin fibroblasts. They show electrophysiological properties of mature neurons and express BFCN-specific markers, such as CHAT, p75NTR, ISL1, and VACHT. As a proof-of-concept, our preliminary results further reveal that hiBFCNs from sporadic AD patients exhibit time-dependent TAU hyperphosphorylation in the soma and dysfunctional nucleocytoplasmic transport activities. CONCLUSIONS: Aging-relevant BFCNs can be directly reprogrammed from human skin fibroblasts of healthy adults and sporadic AD patients. They show promises as an aging-relevant cell model for understanding AD pathology and may be employed for therapeutics identification for AD.

Unconditional and conditional analysis of epistasis between tillering QTLs based on single segment substitution lines in rice.

Epistasis plays an important role in manipulating rice tiller number, but epistatic mechanism still remains a challenge. Here we showed the process of epistatic analysis between tillering QTLs. A half diallel mating scheme was conducted based on 6 single segment substitution lines and 9 dual segment pyramiding lines to allow the analysis of 4 epistatic components. Additive-additive, additive-dominance, dominance-additive, and dominance-dominance epistatic effects were estimated at 9 stages of development via unconditional QTL analysis simultaneously. Unconditional QTL effect (QTL cumulative effect before a certain stage) was then divided into several conditional QTL components (QTL net effect in a certain time interval). The results indicated that epistatic interaction was prevalent, all QTL pairs harboring epistasis and one QTL always interacting with other QTLs in various component ways. Epistatic effects were dynamic, occurring mostly within 14d and 21-35d after transplant and exhibited mainly negative effects. The genetic and developmental mechanism on several tillering QTLs was further realized and perhaps was useful for molecular pyramiding breeding and heterosis utilization for improving plant architecture.

Backbone 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments of the proteasome lid subunit Rpn12 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The 26S proteasome degrades selected polyubiquitinated proteins in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, which is the major pathway for programmed protein degradation in eukaryotic cells. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rpn12 locates in the lid of the 19S regulatory particle within the 26S proteasome and plays a role in recruiting the extrinsic ubiquitin receptor Rpn10. Rpn12 contains a N-terminal TPR (tetratrico peptide repeat)-like domain and a C-terminal WH (winged helix) domain. Interaction of Rpn12 with several subunits of 19S has been observed and it may play an important role in the 19S regulatory particle rearrangement after ubiquitylated substrate binding to the proteasome. Herein, we report the resonance assignments of backbone 1H, 13C and 15N atoms of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rpn12, which provide valuable information for further studies of the dynamics and interactions of the Rpn12 subunit using NMR techniques.

Comprehensive transcriptomics and proteomics analyses of pollinated and parthenocarpic litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) fruits during early development.

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is an important fruit that is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas. In this study, we used RNA-Seq and iTRAQ technologies to compare the transcriptomes and proteomes of pollinated (polLFs) and parthenocarpic (parLFs) litchi fruits during early development (1 day, 2 days, 4 days and 6 days). We identified 4,864 DEGs in polLFs and 3,672 in parLFs, of which 2,835 were shared and 1,051 were specifically identified in parLFs. Compared to po1LFs, 768 DEGs were identified in parLFs. iTRAQ analysis identified 551 DEPs in polLFs and 1,021 in parLFs, of which 305 were shared and 526 were exclusively identified in parLFs. We found 1,127 DEPs in parLFs compared to polLFs at different stages. Further analysis revealed some DEGs/DEPs associated with abscisic acid, auxin, ethylene, gibberellin, heat shock protein (HSP), histone, ribosomal protein, transcription factor and zinc finger protein (ZFP). WGCNA identified a large set of co-expressed genes/proteins in polLFs and parLFs. In addition, a cross-comparison of transcriptomic and proteomic data identified 357 consistent DEGs/DEPs in polLFs and parLFs. This is the first time that protein/gene changes have been studied in polLFs and parLFs, and the findings improve our understanding of litchi parthenocarpy.

The alteration of H4-K16ac and H3-K27met influences the differentiation of neural stem cells.

The neural stem cell therapy provides a promising future for patients with central nerve system damage, thus an insight into its differentiation mechanism is urgently needed. Herein, we aimed to identify various histone modifications and reveal their impact on the differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs) toward neurons. Firstly, we labeled primary NSCs using the stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) technique. Then we induced these NSCs to differentiate by all-trans retinoic acid (atRA) or SB216763. Next, we identified the alteration of histone modifications in early-differentiated NSCs by mass spectrometry and verified them by Western blot. Interestingly, these modification alterations and phenotype changes were found similar in NSCs induced by the two different drugs. More interestingly, during the differentiation process H3-K27met was significantly up-regulated while H4-K16ac was not altered at the global level but down-regulated in some low-abundance combinatorial codes. We inhibited the methyltransferase of H3-K27 and deacetylase of H4-K16 simultaneously and found the differentiation procedure was obviously delayed. The function of H4-K16ac and H3-K27met in NSCs differentiation would be useful to reveal the differentiation mechanism and valuable for further neural stem cell therapy.

Peroxiredoxin 6 Is a Crucial Factor in the Initial Step of Mitochondrial Clearance and Is Upstream of the PINK1-Parkin Pathway.

AIMS: PTEN-putative kinase 1 (PINK1)-Parkin-mediated mitophagy is crucial for the clearance of damaged mitochondria. However, the mechanisms underlying PINK1-Parkin-mediated mitophagy are not fully understood. The goal of this study is to identify new regulators and to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of mitophagy. RESULTS: Quantitative mitochondrial proteomic analysis revealed that 63 proteins showed increased levels and 36 proteins showed decreased levels in cells subjected to carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP) treatment. Peroxiredoxin 6 (PRDX6 or Prx6), a unique member of the ubiquitous PRDX family, was recruited to depolarized mitochondria. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by CCCP promoted PRDX6 accumulation and PINK1 stabilization in damaged mitochondria and induced mitophagy. In addition, depletion of PRDX6 resulted in the stabilization of PINK1, accumulation of autophagic marker, p62, translocation of Parkin to mitochondria, and lipidation of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3. Furthermore, these events were blocked upon supplementation with antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine or depletion of PINK1. INNOVATION: This is the first study to demonstrate that PRDX6 is the only member of the PRDX family that relocates to damaged mitochondria, where it plays a crucial role in the initial stage of mitophagy by controlling ROS homeostasis. CONCLUSION: ROS induce the recruitment of PRDX6 to mitochondria, where PRDX6 controls ROS homeostasis in the initial step of PINK1-Parkin-mediated mitophagy. Our study provides new insight into the initial regulatory mechanisms of mitophagy and reveals the protective role of PRDX6 in the clearance of damaged mitochondria.

PGC-1α/ERRα-Sirt3 Pathway Regulates DAergic Neuronal Death by Directly Deacetylating SOD2 and ATP Synthase ß.

AIMS: Parkinson's disease (PD) heavily affects humans and little is known about its cause and pathogenesis. Sirtuin 3 (Sirt3) plays a key role in regulating mitochondrial dysfunction, which is the main cause of DAergic neuronal loss in PD. We investigated the mechanisms of neuroprotective role of Sirt3 in DAergic neuronal survival. RESULTS: Sirt3 was reduced in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6 tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated neurons with its overexpression being neuroprotective. We identified that Sirt3 interacted with manganese superoxide dismutase (SOD2) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase ß and modulated their activities by deacetylating SOD2 (K130) and ATP synthase ß (K485) to prevent reactive oxygen species accumulation and ATP depletion, and to alleviate DAergic neuronal death upon MPTP treatment. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) interacted with estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRα) that bound to the Sirt3 promoter as its transcription factor to regulate Sirt3 expression and DAergic neuronal death. In the mouse midbrain, MPTP administration led to the loss of PGC-1α and Sirt3, high acetylation level of SOD2 and ATP synthase ß, and the specific loss of DAergic neurons, while Sirt3 overexpression could protect against DAergic neuronal loss. Sirt3 knockout mice exhibited more sensitive and more DAergic neuronal loss to MPTP treatment. INNOVATION: The study provides new insights into a critical PGC-1α/ERRα-Sirt3 pathway, linking regulation of mitochondrial protein acetylation and DAergic neuronal death in PD pathogenesis, which provide a potential therapeutic strategy and target in PD treatment. CONCLUSION: These results provide a vital PGC-1α/ERRα-Sirt3 pathway that protects against DAergic neuronal death by directly deacetylating SOD2 (K130) and ATP synthase ß (K485) in PD.

Quantitative proteomics reveals that PEA15 regulates astroglial Aß phagocytosis in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model.

Amyloid-beta (Aß) deposition plays a crucial role in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Aß deposited extracellularly can be phagocytosed and degraded by surrounding activated astrocytes, but the precise mechanisms underlying Aß clearance mediated by astrocytes remain unclear. In this study, we performed tandem mass tag-based quantitative proteomic analysis on the cerebral cortices of 5-month-old APP/PS1 double-transgenic mice. Among the 2668 proteins quantified, 35 proteins were upregulated and 12 were downregulated, with most of these proteins being shown here for the first time to be differently expressed in the APP/PS1 mouse. The altered proteins were involved in molecular transport, lipid metabolism, autophagy, inflammation, and oxidative stress. One specific protein, PEA15 (phosphoprotein enriched in astrocytes 15 kDa) upregulated in APP/PS1 mice, was verified to play a critical role in astrocyte-mediated Aß phagocytosis. Furthermore, PEA15 levels were determined to increase with age in APP/PS1 mice, indicating that Aß stimulated the upregulation of PEA15 in the APP/PS1 mouse. These results highlight the function of PEA15 in astrocyte-mediated Aß phagocytosis, and thus provide novel insight into the molecular mechanism underlying Aß clearance. The protein-expression profile revealed here should offer new clues to understand the pathogenesis of AD and potential therapeutic targets for AD. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Activated astrocytes are known to clear the Aß deposited in the extracellular milieu, which is why they play a key role in regulating the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the molecular mechanism underlying astrocyte-mediated Aß phagocytosis and degradation remains unclear. By performing tandem mass tag-based quantitative proteomic analysis, we identified 47 proteins that were differentially expressed in APP/PS1 double-transgenic. To our knowledge, this is the first time most of these proteins have been reported to exhibit altered expression in the mouse model of AD. Furthermore, our results indicate that one of the proteins upregulated in the APP/PS1 mouse, PEA15 (phosphoprotein enriched in astrocytes 15 kDa), regulates astroglial phagocytosis of Aß. Our findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanism underlying Aß clearance in AD. The altered profile of protein expression in APP/PS1 mice described here should offer valuable clues to understand the pathogenesis of AD and facilitate the identification of potential targets for the treatment of AD.

Structure determination of human Fas apoptosis inhibitory molecule and identification of the critical residues linking the interdomain interaction to the anti-apoptotic activity.

Fas apoptosis inhibitory molecule (FAIM) is a highly conserved anti-apoptotic protein which plays important roles in cells. There are two isoforms of FAIM, of which the short isoform FAIM-S is broadly expressed in all tissues, whereas the long isoform FAIM-L is exclusively expressed in the nervous system. No structure of human FAIM has been reported to date and the detailed molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-apoptotic function of FAIM remain unknown. Here, the crystal structure of the human FAIM-S N-terminal domain (NTD) and the NMR solution structure of the human FAIM-S C-terminal domain (CTD) were determined. The structures revealed that the NTD and CTD adopt a similar protein fold containing eight antiparallel ß-strands which form two sheets. Both structural and biochemical analyses implied that the NTD exists as a dimer and the CTD as a monomer and that they can interact with each other. Several critical residues were identified to be involved in this interaction. Moreover, mutations of these critical residues also interfered in the anti-apoptotic activity of FAIM-S. Thus, the structural and functional data presented here will provide insight into the anti-apoptotic mechanism of FAIM-S.

Activated cyclin-dependent kinase 5 promotes microglial phagocytosis of fibrillar ß-amyloid by up-regulating lipoprotein lipase expression.

Amyloid plaques are crucial for the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD). Phagocytosis of fibrillar ß-amyloid (Aß) by activated microglia is essential for Aß clearance in Alzheimer disease. However, the mechanism underlying Aß clearance in the microglia remains unclear. In this study, we performed stable isotope labeling of amino acids in cultured cells for quantitative proteomics analysis to determine the changes in protein expression in BV2 microglia treated with or without Aß. Among 2742 proteins identified, six were significantly up-regulated and seven were down-regulated by Aß treatment. Bioinformatic analysis revealed strong over-representation of membrane proteins, including lipoprotein lipase (LPL), among proteins regulated by the Aß stimulus. We verified that LPL expression increased at both mRNA and protein levels in response to Aß treatment in BV2 microglia and primary microglial cells. Silencing of LPL reduced microglial phagocytosis of Aß, but did not affect degradation of internalized Aß. Importantly, we found that enhanced cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) activity by increasing p35-to-p25 conversion contributed to LPL up-regulation and promoted Aß phagocytosis in microglia, whereas inhibition of CDK5 reduced LPL expression and Aß internalization. Furthermore, Aß plaques was increased with reducing p25 and LPL level in APP/PS1 mouse brains, suggesting that CDK5/p25 signaling plays a crucial role in microglial phagocytosis of Aß. In summary, our findings reveal a potential role of the CDK5/p25-LPL signaling pathway in Aß phagocytosis by microglia and provide a new insight into the molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease.