Exogenous Sonic hedgehog modulates the pool of GABAergic interneurons during cerebellar development.

All cerebellar GABAergic interneurons were derived from a common pool of precursor cells residing in the embryonic ventricular zone (VZ) and migrating in the prospective white matter (PWM) after birth, where both intrinsic and extrinsic factors contribute to regulate their amplification. Among the environmental factors, we focused on Sonic hedgehog (Shh), a morphogen well known to regulate neural progenitor cell proliferation. We asked if and how exogenous Shh treatment affects the lineage of cerebellar GABAergic interneurons. To address these issues, exogenous Shh was administered to embryonic and postnatal organotypic slices. We found that Shh is able to expand the pool of interneuron progenitors residing in the embryonic epithelium and in the postnatal PWM. In particular, Shh signalling pathway was highly mitogenic at early developmental stages of interneuron production, whereas its effect decreased after the first postnatal week. Gene expression analysis of sorted cells and in situ hybridization further showed that immature interneurons express both the Shh receptor patched and the Shh target gene Gli1. Thus, within the interneuron lineage, Shh might exert regulatory functions also in postmitotic cells. On the whole, our data enlighten the role of Shh during cerebellar maturation and further broaden our knowledge on the amplification mechanisms of the interneuron progenitor pool.

Symposium in honor of Ferdinando Rossi: a passionate journey through the cerebellar mysteries.

To remember our friend and colleague Ferdinando Rossi, prematurely passed away on 24th January 2014, a symposium was held during the ninth FENS meeting in Milan. It was focused on the development and plasticity of the cerebellum, the main topics of Ferdinando's research. From the talks of the invited speakers, Giacomo Consalez, Karl Schilling, Alain Chédotal, and Chris De Zeeuw, it clearly emerged that Ferdinando had a huge impact on the research of many scientists like them, as well as in the whole field of brain development and regeneration. With this symposium, we celebrated a brilliant scientist, devoted to Neuroscience with tireless passion and curiosity.

The prospective white matter: an atypical neurogenic niche in the developing cerebellum.

Cerebellar GABAergic interneurons comprise heterogeneous phenotypes located at strategic levels of the local networks. Recent findings indicate that they all derive from a common population of multipotent progenitors whose fate choices are determined by instructive information provided by the PWM environment. Here we review about the atypical neurogenic strategy operated within such postnatal niche and we discuss possible instructive mechanisms governing interneuron specification and differentiation.

Plant Expression of a Bacterial Cytochrome P450 That Catalyzes Activation of a Sulfonylurea Pro-Herbicide.

The Streptomyces griseolus gene encoding herbicide-metabolizing cytochrome P450SU1 (CYP105A1) was expressed in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). Because this P450 can be reduced by plant chloroplast ferredoxin in vitro, chloroplast-targeted and nontargeted expression were compared. Whereas P450SU1 antigen was found in the transgenic plants regardless of the targeting, only those with chloroplast-directed enzyme performed P450SU1-mediated N-dealkylation of the sulfonylurea 2-methylethyl-2,3-dihydro-N-[(4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-yl)aminocarbonyl]-1, 2-benzoisothiazole- 7-sulfonamide-1,1-dioxide (R7402). Chloroplast targeting appears to be essential for the bacterial P450 to function in the plant. Because the R7402 metabolite has greater phytotoxicity than R7402 itself, plants bearing active P450SU1 are susceptible to injury from R7402 treatment that is harmless to plants without P450SU1. Thus, P450SU1 expression and R7402 treatment can be used as a negative selection system in plants. Furthermore, expression of P450SU1 from a tissue-specific promoter can sequester production of the phytotoxic R7402 metabolite to a single plant tissue. In tobacco expressing P450SU1 from a tapetum-specific promoter, treatment of immature flower buds with R7402 caused dramatically lowered pollen viability. Such treatment could be the basis for a chemical hybridizing agent.

Characterization of Three Photosystem II Mutants in Zea mays L. Lacking a 32,000 Dalton Lamellar Polypeptide.

Two fully blocked and one partially blocked photosystem II nuclear mutants have been selected in Zea mays. The fully blocked mutants lack photosystem II activity, variable fluorescence, the light-inducible C-550 signal, the high potential form of cytochrome b-559, and most or all of the low potential form of the cytochrome. The block in these mutants may primarily affect the reducing side of photosystem II, inasmuch as chloroplasts isolated from both mutants exhibit an elevated F695 fluorescence emission peak. The partially blocked mutant exhibits partial photosystem II activity and a reduction, but not the total loss of the variable fluorescence yield, the C-550 signal, and the high potential form of cytochrome b-559. Lamellae isolated from the fully blocked mutants are greatly deficient for a major lamellar polypeptide with an apparent molecular weight of 32,000 daltons, whereas lamellae from the partially blocked mutant show the partial loss of this same polypeptide, suggesting that the 32,000 dalton polypeptide is necessary for the proper function of photosystem II.

Nuclear mutation leads to an accelerated turnover of chloroplast-encoded 48 kd and 34.5 kd polypeptides in thylakoids lacking photosystem II.

We have studied the synthesis and accumulation of a chloroplast-encoded 48 kd chla-reaction center protein and the 34.5 kd ;atrazine binding' protein in a nuclear maize mutant which fails to assemble photosystem II reaction centers. The failure of these polypeptides to accumulation in mutant thylakoids is not due to direct nuclear control over their synthesis but is rather due to their specific, accelerated turnover from the thylakoid membrane. The accelerated turnover of these polypeptides in mutant thylakoids is largely independent of illumination conditions, as accelerated turnover occurs in the dark as well as in the light. In contrast to wild type, the 48 kd and 34.5 kd polypeptides are preferentially associated with stroma, rather than grana, lamellae in mutant membranes, suggesting that turnover occurs before these polypeptides become enriched in the grana. The nucleus thus plays a role in the stabilization of these chloroplast-encoded photosystem II reaction center polypeptides.

Cytochrome P-450 from the Mesocarp of Avocado (Persea americana).

The microsomal fraction from the mesocarp of avocado (Persea americana) is one of few identified rich sources of plant cytochrome P-450. Cytochrome P-450 from this tissue has been solubilized and purified. Enzymatic assays (p-chloro-N-methylaniline demethylase) and spectroscopic observations of substrate binding suggest a low spin form of the cytochrome, resembling that in the microsomal membrane, can be recovered. However, this preparation of native protein is a mixture of nearly equal proportions of two cytochrome P-450 polypeptides that have been resolved only under denaturing conditions. Overall similarities between these polypeptides include indistinguishable amino acid compositions, similar trypsin digest patterns, and cross reactivity with the same antibody. The amino terminal sequences of both polypeptides are identical, with the exception that one of them lacks a methionine residue at the amino terminus. This sequence exhibits some similarities with the membrane targeting signal found at the amino terminus of most mammalian cytochromes P-450.

Nuclear Involvement in the Appearance of a Chloroplast-Encoded 32,000 Dalton Thylakoid Membrane Polypeptide Integral to the Photosystem II Complex.

The genetic locus for the high chlorophyll fluorescent photosystem II-deficient maize mutant hcf(*)-3 has been definitively located to the nuclear genome. Fluorography of lamellar polypeptides labeled with [(35)S]methionine in vivo revealed the specific loss of a heavily labeled 32,000 dalton thylakoid membrane polypeptide as well as its chloroplast encoded precursor species at 34,000 daltons. Examination of freeze-fractured mesophyll and bundle sheath thylakoids from hcf(*)-3 revealed that both plastid types lacked the large EFs particles believed to consist of the photosystem II reaction center-core complex and associated light harvesting chlorophyll-proteins. The present evidence suggests that the synthesis or turnover/integration of the chloroplast-encoded 34,000 to 32,000 dalton polypeptide is under nuclear control, and that these polyipeptides are integral components of photosystem II which may be required for the assembly or structural stabilization of newly formed photosystem II reaction centers in both mesophyll and bundle sheath chloroplasts.

Isolation and characterization of Streptomyces griseolus deletion mutants affected in cytochrome P-450-mediated herbicide metabolism.

Metabolism of sulfonylurea herbicides by Streptomyces griseolus ATCC 11796 is carried out via two cytochromes P-450, P-450SU1 and P-450SU2. Mutants of S. griseolus, selected by their reduced ability to metabolize a fluorescent sulfonylurea, do not synthesize cytochrome P-450SU1 when grown in the presence of sulfonylureas. Genetic evidence indicated that this phenotype was the result of a deletion of greater than 15 kb of DNA, including the structural genes for cytochrome P-450SU1 and an associated ferredoxin Fd-1 (suaC and suaB, respectively). In the absence of this monooxygenase system, the mutants described here respond to the presence of sulfonylureas or phenobarbital in the growth medium with the expression of only the subC,B gene products (cytochrome P-450SU2 and Fd-2), previously observed only as minor components in wild-type cells treated with sulfonylurea. These strains have enabled an analysis of sulfonylurea metabolism mediated by cytochrome P-450SU2 in the absence of P-450SU1, yielding an in vivo delineation of the roles of the two different cytochrome P-450 systems in herbicide metabolism by S. griseolus.

Genes for two herbicide-inducible cytochromes P-450 from Streptomyces griseolus.

Streptomyces griseolus ATCC 11796 contains two inducible, herbicide-metabolizing cytochromes P-450 previously designated P-450SU1 and P-450SU2 (P-450CVA1 and P-450CVB1, respectively, using nomenclature of Nebert et al. [D. W. Nebert, M. Adesnik, M. J. Coon, R. W. Estabrook, F. J. Gonzalez, F. P. Guengerich, I. C. Gunsalus, E. F. Johnson, B. Kemper, W. Levin, I. R. Phillips, R. Sato, and M. R. Waterman, DNA 6:1-11, 1987]). Using antibodies directed against cytochrome P-450SU1, its N-terminal amino acid sequence, and amino acid composition, we cloned the suaC gene encoding cytochrome P-450SU1. Similar information about the cytochrome P-450SU2 protein confirmed that a gene cloned by cross-hybridization to the suaC gene was the subC gene encoding cytochrome P-450SU2. The suaC and subC genes were expressed in Escherichia coli, DNA for both genes was sequenced, and the deduced amino acid sequences were compared with that of the well-characterized cytochrome P-450CAM from Pseudomonas putida. Both cytochromes P-450SU1 and P-450SU2 contain several regions of strong similarity with the amino acid sequence of P-450CAM, primarily in regions of the protein responsible for attachment and coordination of the heme prosthetic group.