Heightened stress response in primary fibroblasts expressing mutant eIF2B genes from CACH/VWM leukodystrophy patients

Childhood ataxia with central nervous system hypomyelination (CACH), also called vanishing white matter (VWM) leukoencephalopathy, is a fatal genetic disease caused by mutations in eukaryotic initiation factor 2B (eIF2B) genes. The five subunits eIF2B factor is critical for translation initiation under normal conditions and regulates protein synthesis in response to cellular stresses. Primary fibroblasts from CACH/VWM patients and normal individuals were used to measure basal eIF2B activity as well as global protein synthesis and ATF4 induction in response to stress in the endoplasmic reticulum. We show that although the cells expressing mutant eIF2B genes respond normally to stress conditions by reduced global translation rates, they exhibit significantly greater increase in ATF4 induction compared to normal controls despite equal levels of stress and activity of the upstream eIF2α kinase. This heightened stress response observed in primary fibroblasts that suffer from minor loss of basal eIF2B activity may be employed as an initial screening tool for CACH/VWM leukodystrophy.     

The structural basis of the thermostability of SP1, a novel plant (Populus tremula) boiling stable protein

We previously reported on a new boiling stable protein isolated from aspen plants (Populus tremula), which we named SP1. SP1 is a stress-related protein with no significant sequence homology to other stress-related proteins. It is a 108-amino-acid hydrophilic polypeptide with a molecular mass of 12.4 kDa (Wang, W. X., Pelah, D., Alergand, T., Shoseyov, O., and Altman, A. (2002) Plant Physiol. 130, 865-875) and is found in an oligomeric form. Preliminary electron microscopy studies and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry experiments showed that SP1 is a dodecamer composed of two stacking hexamers. We performed a SDS-PAGE analysis, a differential scanning calorimetric study, and crystal structure determination to further characterize SP1. SDS-PAGE indicated a spontaneous assembly of SP1 to one stable oligomeric form, a dodecamer. Differential scanning calorimetric showed that SP1 has high thermostability i.e. Tm of 107 degrees C (at pH 7.8). The crystal structure of SP1 was initially determined to 2.4 A resolution by multi-wavelength anomalous dispersion method from a crystal belonging to the space group I422. The phases were extended to 1.8 A resolution using data from a different crystal form (P21). The final refined molecule includes 106 of the 108 residues and 132 water molecules (on average for each chain). The R-free is 20.1%. The crystal structure indicated that the SP1 molecule has a ferredoxin-like fold. Strong interactions between each two molecules create a stable dimer. Six dimers associate to form a ring-like-shaped dodecamer strongly resembling the particle visualized in the electron microscopy studies. No structural similarity was found between the crystal structure of SP1 and the crystal structure of other stress-related proteins such as small heat shock proteins, whose structure has been already determined. This structural study further supports our previous report that SP1 may represent a new family of stress-related proteins with high thermostability and oligomerization.     

The cross-generation transmission of oxytocin in humans

Animal studies demonstrated that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), implicated in bond formation across mammalian species, is transmitted from mother to young through mechanisms of early social experiences; however, no research has addressed the cross-generation transmission of OT in humans. Fifty-five parents (36 mothers and 19 fathers) engaged in a 15-min interaction with their infants. Baseline plasma OT was sampled from parents and salivary OT was sampled from parents and infants before and after play and analyzed with ELISA methods. Interactions were micro-coded for parent and child's socio-affective behavior. Parent and infant's salivary OT was individually stable across assessments and showed an increase from pre- to post-interaction. Significant correlations emerged between parental and infant OT at both assessments and higher OT levels in parent and child were related to greater affect synchrony and infant social engagement. Parent-infant affect synchrony moderated the relations between parental and infant OT and the associations between OT in parent and child were stronger under conditions of high affect synchrony. Results demonstrate consistency in the neuroendocrine system supporting bond formation in humans and other mammals and underscore the role of early experience in shaping the cross-generation transmission of social affiliation in humans.     

Changes in the Nuclear Envelope Environment Affect Spindle Pole Body Duplication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae nuclear membrane is part of a complex nuclear envelope environment also containing chromatin, integral and peripheral membrane proteins, and large structures such as nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and the spindle pole body. To study how properties of the nuclear membrane affect nuclear envelope processes, we altered the nuclear membrane by deleting the SPO7 gene. We found that spo7Δ cells were sickened by the mutation of genes coding for spindle pole body components and that spo7Δ was synthetically lethal with mutations in the SUN domain gene MPS3. Mps3p is required for spindle pole body duplication and for a variety of other nuclear envelope processes. In spo7Δ cells, the spindle pole body defect of mps3 mutants was exacerbated, suggesting that nuclear membrane composition affects spindle pole body function. The synthetic lethality between spo7Δ and mps3 mutants was suppressed by deletion of specific nucleoporin genes. In fact, these gene deletions bypassed the requirement for Mps3p entirely, suggesting that under certain conditions spindle pole body duplication can occur via an Mps3p-independent pathway. These data point to an antagonistic relationship between nuclear pore complexes and the spindle pole body. We propose a model whereby nuclear pore complexes either compete with the spindle pole body for insertion into the nuclear membrane or affect spindle pole body duplication by altering the nuclear envelope environment.THE nuclear envelope is composed of distinct outer and inner nuclear membranes. The outer nuclear membrane is continuous with the endoplasmic reticulum. The inner nuclear membrane is associated with a unique set of proteins, some of which mediate interactions between the nuclear envelope and chromatin (reviewed in Zhao et al. 2009). Nuclear pore complexes traverse both membranes and allow transport of proteins and solutes between the cytoplasm and the nucleus. The inner and outer nuclear membranes fuse in the region surrounding each nuclear pore complex.In animal cells, the nuclear envelope disassembles as cells enter mitosis and reassembles upon mitotic exit. Nuclear envelope breakdown allows the association of chromosomes with spindle microtubules, which are nucleated from centrosomes that reside in the cytoplasm. In contrast, certain types of fungi, such as the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, undergo closed mitosis, where the nuclear envelope remains intact throughout the entire cell cycle. Closed mitosis is possible because the yeast centrosome-equivalent, the spindle pole body (SPB), is embedded in the nuclear envelope, allowing the SPB to nucleate both cytoplasmic and nuclear microtubules.SPB duplication requires a mechanism for inserting the new SPB into the nuclear envelope (reviewed in Jaspersen and Winey 2004). The new SPB begins to form in late G₁/early S phase as satellite material deposited on the cytoplasmic face of an electron-dense region of the nuclear envelope, called the half-bridge. The satellite material matures into a duplication plaque, which is then inserted into the nuclear membrane and becomes the daughter SPB. Many genes are known to be required for SPB duplication, and this process has been carefully examined cytologically (Rose and Fink 1987; Winey et al. 1991, 1993; Spang et al. 1995; Bullitt et al. 1997; Adams and Kilmartin 1999; Elliott et al. 1999; Schramm et al. 2000; Jaspersen et al. 2002; Nishikawa et al. 2003; Araki et al. 2006). However, the exact mechanisms by which SPB duplication and insertion occur remain a mystery.Equally unclear is how nuclear pore complexes are inserted into an intact nuclear envelope (reviewed in Hetzer and Wente 2009). For both the SPB and nuclear pore complexes, the inner and outer nuclear membranes must fuse to allow insertion into the nuclear envelope. Yeast and vertebrate nuclear pore complexes each have four pore membrane (POM) nucleoporins containing transmembrane domains. Other nucleoporins have motifs with potential for bending membranes or sensing membrane curvature. Thus, certain nuclear pore complex components may have the ability to alter the nuclear membrane or stabilize particular membrane conformations (Devos et al. 2004, 2006; Alber et al. 2007; Drin et al. 2007). It is interesting to note that, in S. cerevisiae, nuclear pore complexes are enriched in the vicinity of the SPB (Heath et al. 1995; Winey et al. 1997; Adams and Kilmartin 1999), but the significance of this phenomenon is not known. The SPB and nuclear pore complexes share at least two common components, the integral membrane protein Ndc1p and the small calcium-binding protein Cdc31p (Chial et al. 1998; Fischer et al. 2004). Ndc1p is thought to play a role in insertion of both SPBs and nuclear pore complexes into the nuclear membrane.SUN domain proteins are a conserved family of inner nuclear membrane proteins that interact with specific outer nuclear membrane proteins to form a physical bridge across the nuclear envelope (reviewed in Hiraoka and Dernburg 2009; Razafsky and Hodzic 2009). One of the components of the S. cerevisiae SPB is the SUN domain protein Mps3p. The N terminus of Mps3p is in the nucleoplasm, while the C terminus, containing the SUN domain, is found in the space between the inner and outer nuclear membranes. In addition to the SPB, Mps3p localizes to multiple foci at the nuclear periphery, and these two pools of Mps3p have distinct functions (Jaspersen et al. 2002, 2006; Nishikawa et al. 2003). At the SPB, Mps3p is required for half-bridge formation and early steps of SPB duplication, and cells compromised for Mps3p function accumulate in mitosis with a single SPB and a monopolar spindle (Jaspersen et al. 2002; Nishikawa et al. 2003). At the nuclear periphery, Mps3p is involved in tethering telomeres to the nuclear envelope in mitosis and meiosis, sequestering DNA double-strand breaks away from recombination factors, and associating with soluble chromatin proteins (Antoniacci et al. 2004, 2007; Bupp et al. 2007; Conrad et al. 2007, 2008; Oza et al. 2009; Schober et al. 2009).While many structural features of the yeast nucleus have been identified, little is known about how the physical properties of the nuclear membrane contribute to processes that occur at the nuclear envelope. As noted above, resident proteins of the nuclear envelope may affect nuclear membrane properties. In addition, the nuclear membrane is affected by altering lipid biosynthesis, for example, by inactivating the phosphatidic acid (PA) phosphohydrolase Pah1p or by inactivating the phosphates complex, made of Spo7p and Nem1p, which activates Pah1p. In the absence of Spo7p, Nem1p, or Pah1p, cells exhibit nuclear envelope extensions and extensive ER membrane sheets, and they also have altered membrane lipid composition, including a decrease in phosphatidylcholine and an increase in PA, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylinositol (Siniossoglou et al. 1998; Santos-Rosa et al. 2005; Campbell et al. 2006; Han et al. 2006). These three proteins are unique among phospholipid biosynthesis proteins in their ability to affect nuclear morphology upon gene disruption (Han et al. 2008). A similar phenotype was seen upon overexpression of DGK1, which counteracts the activity of Pah1p by converting diacylglycerol to PA, leading to an increase in PA levels at the nuclear envelope (Han et al. 2008). Consistent with a conserved role for Pah1p in regulating nuclear envelope processes, deletion of either NEM1 or SPO7 is synthetically lethal with deletions of certain nucleoporin genes (Siniossoglou et al. 1998), and inactivation of the PAH1 homolog in Caenorhabditis elegans, LPIN-1, results in defects in nuclear envelope disassembly and reassembly (Golden et al. 2009; Gorjanacz and Mattaj 2009).To identify processes that are affected by altered nuclear membrane properties, we screened for pathways that are compromised in spo7Δ cells. We found that SPO7 inactivation strongly influences the SPB. By screening for proteins that could alleviate spo7Δ-induced SPB defects, we uncovered an unexpected inhibitory role for nucleoporins in SPB function, revealing that nuclear pore complexes, or components thereof, act antagonistically to the SPB in the nuclear envelope. Taken together, our findings indicate that the nuclear envelope environment is important for the function of protein complexes and biological processes occurring at the nuclear periphery.