Mammalian Formin Fhod3 Regulates Actin Assembly and Sarcomere Organization in Striated Muscles

Actin filament assembly in nonmuscle cells is regulated by the actin polymerization machinery, including the Arp2/3 complex and formins. However, little is known about the regulation of actin assembly in muscle cells, where straight actin filaments are organized into the contractile unit sarcomere. Here, we show that Fhod3, a myocardial formin that localizes to thin actin filaments in a striated pattern, regulates sarcomere organization in cardiomyocytes. RNA interference-mediated depletion of Fhod3 results in a marked reduction in filamentous actin and disruption of the sarcomeric structure. These defects are rescued by expression of wild-type Fhod3 but not by that of mutant proteins carrying amino acid substitution for conserved residues for actin assembly. These findings suggest that actin dynamics regulated by Fhod3 are critical for sarcomere organization in striated muscle cells.In striated muscle, thin actin filaments and thick filaments of myosin are highly organized to form myofibrils (1) (Fig. 1A). During myofibrillogenesis, actin cytoskeleton undergoes dynamic remodeling to produce uniform lengths of straight filaments packaged in the sarcomere, a contractile unit of myofibrils (2–4). In nascent sarcomeres, a filamentous actin-containing structure, referred to as the Z-body or I-Z-I structure, emerges as a precursor of the Z-line that anchors actin filaments. Subsequent alignment of the precursors leads to formation of a striated pattern of the Z-line, and myosin filaments are incorporated between Z-lines. Finally, the M-line that serves as an anchoring site for myosin filaments becomes visible; the appearance is accompanied by alignment of the unanchored end of actin filaments (5). Thus, the mature distribution pattern of actin filaments is constructed at the final step in myofibril assembly, indicating that actin filaments continue to develop throughout myofibrillogenesis. However, the regulation of actin dynamics in this process has remained poorly understood. In nonmuscle cells, organization of actin cytoskeleton is achieved by two major actin nucleating-polymerizing systems, formins and the Arp2/3 complex, with the former producing long straight actin filaments and the latter producing branched actin network (6, 7). Because an unbranched straight actin filament is the major form in striated muscle cells, it is possible that a formin family protein serves as the key regulator of actin dynamics in myofibrils.Open in a separate windowFIGURE 1.Localization of Fhod3 in cultured rat cardiomyocytes. A, shown is a representation of the sarcomere structure (upper panel) and relative localization of Fhod3 and other sarcomeric proteins from B–D (lower panel). B–D, neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were subjected to immunofluorescent double staining for endogenous Fhod3 (red) and α-actinin (green) (B), myomesin (green) (C), or phalloidin (green) (D). For Fhod3 staining, the anti-Fhod3-(650–802) polyclonal antibodies were used. Scale bar, 10 μm.Formins are characterized by the presence of two conserved regions, the formin homology 1 and 2 domains (FH1 and FH2 domains, respectively)² (8, 9). The FH2 domain associates with the barbed end of an actin filament and promotes actin nucleation and polymerization. The FH2 domain continues to associate with the barbed end during polymerization; this processive association protects the growing barbed end from capping proteins that inhibit actin elongation. The FH1 domain, located N-terminally to the FH2 domain, accelerates the FH2-mediated actin elongation via recruiting profilin complexed with an actin monomer. Through cooperation of the FH1 and FH2 domains, formins produce long straight actin filaments even in the presence of capping proteins. Here, we focused on the role of the mammalian formin Fhod3 (previously designated as Fhos2L), which is expressed predominantly in the heart (10), in actin assembly in myofibrils.