The response of Dual-leucine zipper kinase (DLK) to nocodazole: Evidence for a homeostatic cytoskeletal repair mechanism.

Genetic and pharmacological perturbation of the cytoskeleton enhances the regenerative potential of neurons. This response requires Dual-leucine Zipper Kinase (DLK), a neuronal stress sensor that is a central regulator of axon regeneration and degeneration. The damage and repair aspects of this response are reminiscent of other cellular homeostatic systems, suggesting that a cytoskeletal homeostatic response exists. In this study, we propose a framework for understanding DLK mediated neuronal cytoskeletal homeostasis. We demonstrate that low dose nocodazole treatment activates DLK signaling. Activation of DLK signaling results in a DLK-dependent transcriptional signature, which we identify through RNA-seq. This signature includes genes likely to attenuate DLK signaling while simultaneously inducing actin regulating genes. We identify alterations to the cytoskeleton including actin-based morphological changes to the axon. These results are consistent with the model that cytoskeletal disruption in the neuron induces a DLK-dependent homeostatic mechanism, which we term the Cytoskeletal Stress Response (CSR) pathway.

The response of Dual-Leucine Zipper Kinase (DLK) to nocodazole: evidence for a homeostatic cytoskeletal repair mechanism.

Genetic and pharmacological perturbation of the cytoskeleton enhances the regenerative potential of neurons. This response requires Dual-leucine Zipper Kinase (DLK), a neuronal stress sensor that is a central regulator of axon regeneration and degeneration. The damage and repair aspects of this response are reminiscent of other cellular homeostatic systems, suggesting that a cytoskeletal homeostatic response exists. In this study, we propose a framework for understanding DLK mediated neuronal cytoskeletal homeostasis. We demonstrate that a) low dose nocodazole treatment activates DLK signaling and b) DLK signaling mitigates the microtubule damage caused by the cytoskeletal perturbation. We also perform RNA-seq to discover a DLK-dependent transcriptional signature. This signature includes genes likely to attenuate DLK signaling while simultaneously inducing actin regulating genes and promoting actin-based morphological changes to the axon. These results are consistent with the model that cytoskeletal disruption in the neuron induces a DLK-dependent homeostatic mechanism, which we term the Cytoskeletal Stress Response (CSR) pathway.

Loss of Stathmin-2, a hallmark of TDP-43-associated ALS, causes motor neuropathy.

TDP-43 mediates proper Stathmin-2 (STMN2) mRNA splicing, and STMN2 protein is reduced in the spinal cord of most patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To test the hypothesis that STMN2 loss contributes to ALS pathogenesis, we generated constitutive and conditional STMN2 knockout mice. Constitutive STMN2 loss results in early-onset sensory and motor neuropathy featuring impaired motor behavior and dramatic distal neuromuscular junction (NMJ) denervation of fast-fatigable motor units, which are selectively vulnerable in ALS, without axon or motoneuron degeneration. Selective excision of STMN2 in motoneurons leads to similar NMJ pathology. STMN2 knockout heterozygous mice, which better model the partial loss of STMN2 protein found in patients with ALS, display a slowly progressive, motor-selective neuropathy with functional deficits and NMJ denervation. Thus, our findings strongly support the hypothesis that STMN2 reduction owing to TDP-43 pathology contributes to ALS pathogenesis.

Steroid hormone signaling activates thermal nociception during Drosophila peripheral nervous system development.

Sensory neurons enable animals to detect environmental changes and avoid harm. An intriguing open question concerns how the various attributes of sensory neurons arise in development. Drosophila melanogaster larvae undergo a behavioral transition by robustly activating a thermal nociceptive escape behavior during the second half of larval development (third instar). The Class IV dendritic arborization (C4da) neurons are multimodal sensors which tile the body wall of Drosophila larvae and detect nociceptive temperature, light, and mechanical force. In contrast to the increase in nociceptive behavior in the third instar, we find that ultraviolet light-induced Ca2+ activity in C4da neurons decreases during the same period of larval development. Loss of ecdysone receptor has previously been shown to reduce nociception in third instar larvae. We find that ligand-dependent activation of ecdysone signaling is sufficient to promote nociceptive responses in second instar larvae and suppress expression of subdued (encoding a TMEM16 channel). Reduction of subdued expression in second instar C4da neurons not only increases thermal nociception but also decreases the response to ultraviolet light. Thus, steroid hormone signaling suppresses subdued expression to facilitate the sensory switch of C4da neurons. This regulation of a developmental sensory switch through steroid hormone regulation of channel expression raises the possibility that ion channel homeostasis is a key target for tuning the development of sensory modalities.

During their lives, animals encounter a broad range of stimuli from their surroundings including heat, light and touch. The ability to appropriately respond to such stimuli is crucial for survival as it allows the animals to avoid predators and other dangers, locate food and shelter, and find mates. Fruit fly larvae are a useful model for studying how animals respond to unpleasant (known as painful) heat stimuli. When something hot touches a larva, the larva rolls away to avoid the stimulus. The heat stimulates electrical activity in a type of neuron known as C4da neurons on the surface of the larva. Ultraviolet light and several other stimuli are also able to activate electrical activity in C4da neurons, resulting in the larvae changing the direction they move to avoid the stimuli. Only older fly larvae respond to painful heat stimuli and previous studies found that a hormone receptor protein is required for this response. However, it remains unclear how this response develops as the larvae age. Jaszczak et al. studied the behavior of fly larvae and electrical activities of C4da neurons in response to painful heat and ultraviolet light. The experiments found that painful heat triggered more rolling behavior from older larvae than those of younger larvae. In contrast, ultraviolet light triggered lower levels of electrical activity in the C4da neurons of older larvae than those of younger larvae. The team raised the levels of a hormone known as ecdysone and found that this increased the rolling behavior in younger larvae. They then increased the amount of receptor protein for this hormone in the neurons and found that it decreased the levels of another protein called Subdued in the C4da neurons. This in turn increased the neurons' response to painful heat and decreased their response to ultraviolet light. Jaszczak et al. propose that as the larva develops, ecdysone reduces the levels of Subdued, which promotes C4da neurons to switch their sensitivity from detecting ultraviolet light to painful heat. In the future, better understanding of what causes pain sensations in developing animals will help us search for factors that cause long-term pain conditions in humans.

Live imaging reveals the cellular events downstream of SARM1 activation.

SARM1 is an inducible NAD+ hydrolase that triggers axon loss and neuronal cell death in the injured and diseased nervous system. While SARM1 activation and enzyme function are well defined, the cellular events downstream of SARM1 activity but prior to axonal demise are much less well understood. Defects in calcium, mitochondria, ATP, and membrane homeostasis occur in injured axons, but the relationships among these events have been difficult to disentangle because prior studies analyzed large collections of axons in which cellular events occur asynchronously. Here, we used live imaging of mouse sensory neurons with single axon resolution to investigate the cellular events downstream of SARM1 activity. Our studies support a model in which SARM1 NADase activity leads to an ordered sequence of events from loss of cellular ATP, to defects in mitochondrial movement and depolarization, followed by calcium influx, externalization of phosphatidylserine, and loss of membrane permeability prior to catastrophic axonal self-destruction.

Dendrite regeneration of adult Drosophila sensory neurons diminishes with aging and is inhibited by epidermal-derived matrix metalloproteinase 2.

Dendrites possess distinct structural and functional properties that enable neurons to receive information from the environment as well as other neurons. Despite their key role in neuronal function, current understanding of the ability of neurons to regenerate dendrites is lacking. This study characterizes the structural and functional capacity for dendrite regeneration in vivo in adult animals and examines the effect of neuronal maturation on dendrite regeneration. We focused on the class IV dendritic arborization (c4da) neuron of the Drosophila sensory system, which has a dendritic arbor that undergoes dramatic remodeling during the first 3 d of adult life and then maintains a relatively stable morphology thereafter. Using a laser severing paradigm, we monitored regeneration after acute and spatially restricted injury. We found that the capacity for regeneration was present in adult neurons but diminished as the animal aged. Regenerated dendrites recovered receptive function. Furthermore, we found that the regenerated dendrites show preferential alignment with the extracellular matrix (ECM). Finally, inhibition of ECM degradation by inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (Mmp2) to preserve the extracellular environment characteristics of young adults led to increased dendrite regeneration. These results demonstrate that dendrites retain regenerative potential throughout adulthood and that regenerative capacity decreases with aging.

Phospholipid Homeostasis Regulates Dendrite Morphogenesis in Drosophila Sensory Neurons.

Disruptions in lipid homeostasis have been observed in many neurodevelopmental disorders that are associated with dendrite morphogenesis defects. However, the molecular mechanisms of how lipid homeostasis affects dendrite morphogenesis are unclear. We find that easily shocked (eas), which encodes a kinase with a critical role in phospholipid phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) synthesis, and two other enzymes in this synthesis pathway are required cell autonomously in sensory neurons for dendrite growth and stability. Furthermore, we show that the level of Sterol Regulatory Element-Binding Protein (SREBP) activity is important for dendrite development. SREBP activity increases in eas mutants, and decreasing the level of SREBP and its transcriptional targets in eas mutants largely suppresses the dendrite growth defects. Furthermore, reducing Ca2+ influx in neurons of eas mutants ameliorates the dendrite morphogenesis defects. Our study uncovers a role for EAS kinase and reveals the in vivo function of phospholipid homeostasis in dendrite morphogenesis.

In vivo dendrite regeneration after injury is different from dendrite development.

Neurons receive information along dendrites and send signals along axons to synaptic contacts. The factors that control axon regeneration have been examined in many systems, but dendrite regeneration has been largely unexplored. Here we report that, in intact Drosophila larvae, a discrete injury that removes all dendrites induces robust dendritic growth that recreates many features of uninjured dendrites, including the number of dendrite branches that regenerate and responsiveness to sensory stimuli. However, the growth and patterning of injury-induced dendrites is significantly different from uninjured dendrites. We found that regenerated arbors cover much less territory than uninjured neurons, fail to avoid crossing over other branches from the same neuron, respond less strongly to mechanical stimuli, and are pruned precociously. Finally, silencing the electrical activity of the neurons specifically blocks injury-induced, but not developmental, dendrite growth. By elucidating the essential features of dendrites grown in response to acute injury, our work builds a framework for exploring dendrite regeneration in physiological and pathological conditions.

RAB-10-Dependent Membrane Transport Is Required for Dendrite Arborization.

Formation of elaborately branched dendrites is necessary for the proper input and connectivity of many sensory neurons. Previous studies have revealed that dendritic growth relies heavily on ER-to-Golgi transport, Golgi outposts and endocytic recycling. How new membrane and associated cargo is delivered from the secretory and endosomal compartments to sites of active dendritic growth, however, remains unknown. Using a candidate-based genetic screen in C. elegans, we have identified the small GTPase RAB-10 as a key regulator of membrane trafficking during dendrite morphogenesis. Loss of rab-10 severely reduced proximal dendritic arborization in the multi-dendritic PVD neuron. RAB-10 acts cell-autonomously in the PVD neuron and localizes to the Golgi and early endosomes. Loss of function mutations of the exocyst complex components exoc-8 and sec-8, which regulate tethering, docking and fusion of transport vesicles at the plasma membrane, also caused proximal dendritic arborization defects and led to the accumulation of intracellular RAB-10 vesicles. In rab-10 and exoc-8 mutants, the trans-membrane proteins DMA-1 and HPO-30, which promote PVD dendrite stabilization and branching, no longer localized strongly to the proximal dendritic membranes and instead were sequestered within intracellular vesicles. Together these results suggest a crucial role for the Rab10 GTPase and the exocyst complex in controlling membrane transport from the secretory and/or endosomal compartments that is required for dendritic growth.

Craniofacial abnormalities result from knock down of nonsyndromic clefting gene, crispld2, in zebrafish.

Nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate (NSCLP), a common birth defect, affects 4,000 newborns in the US each year. Previously, we described an association between CRISPLD2 and NSCLP and showed Crispld2 expression in the murine palate. These results suggested that a perturbation in CRISPLD2 activity affects craniofacial development. Here, we describe crispld2 expression and the phenotypic consequence of its loss of function in zebrafish. crispld2 was expressed at all stages of zebrafish morphogenesis examined and localized to the rostral end by 1-day postfertilization. Morpholino knockdown of crispld2 resulted in significant jaw and palatal abnormalities in a dose-dependent manner. Loss of crispld2 caused aberrant patterning of neural crest cells (NCC) suggesting that crispld2 is necessary for normal NCC formation. Altogether, we show that crispld2 plays a significant role in the development of the zebrafish craniofacies and alteration of normal protein levels disturbs palate and jaw formation. These data provide support for a role of CRISPLD2 in NSCLP.