High-Frequency Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus Counteracts Cortical Expression of Major Histocompatibility Complex Genes in a Rat Model of Parkinson’s Disease

High-frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-HFS) is widely used as therapeutic intervention in patients suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease. STN-HFS exerts a powerful modulatory effect on cortical motor control by orthodromic modulation of basal ganglia outflow and via antidromic activation of corticofugal fibers. However, STN-HFS-induced changes of the sensorimotor cortex are hitherto unexplored. To address this question at a genomic level, we performed mRNA expression analyses using Affymetrix microarray gene chips and real-time RT-PCR in sensorimotor cortex of parkinsonian and control rats following STN-HFS. Experimental parkinsonism was induced in Brown Norway rats by bilateral nigral injections of 6-hydroxydopamine and was assessed histologically, behaviorally, and electrophysiologically. We applied prolonged (23h) unilateral STN-HFS in awake and freely moving animals, with the non-stimulated hemisphere serving as an internal control for gene expression analyses. Gene enrichment analysis revealed strongest regulation in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) related genes. STN-HFS led to a cortical downregulation of several MHC class II (RT1-Da, Db1, Ba, and Cd74) and MHC class I (RT1CE) encoding genes. The same set of genes showed increased expression levels in a comparison addressing the effect of 6-hydroxydopamine lesioning. Hence, our data suggest the possible association of altered microglial activity and synaptic transmission by STN-HFS within the sensorimotor cortex of 6-hydroxydopamine treated rats.     

Homologous protein import machineries in chloroplasts and cyanelles

The cyanelles of the glaucocystophyte alga Cyanophora paradoxa resemble endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, especially in the presence of a peptidoglycan wall between the inner and outer envelope membranes. However, it is now clear that cyanelles are in fact primitive plastids. Phylogenetic analyses of plastid, nuclear and mitochondrial genes support a single primary endosymbiotic event. In this scenario, cyanelles and all other plastid types are derived from an ancestral photosynthetic organelle combining the high gene content of rhodoplasts and the peptidoglycan wall of cyanelles. This means that the import apparatuses of all primary plastids, i.e. those from glaucocystophytes, red algae, green algae and higher plants, should be homologous. If this is the case, then transit sequences should be similar and heterologous import experiments feasible. Thus far, heterologous in vitro import has been shown in one direction only: precursors from C. paradoxa were imported into isolated pea or spinach chloroplasts. Cyanelle transit sequences differ from chloroplast stroma targeting peptides in containing in their N-terminal domain an invariant phenylalanine residue which is shown here to be crucial for import. In addition, we now demonstrate that heterologous precursors are readily imported into isolated cyanelles, provided that the essential phenylalanine residue is engineered into the N-terminal part of chloroplast transit peptides. The cyanelle and likely also the rhodoplast import apparatus can be envisaged as prototypes with a single receptor/channel showing this requirement for N-terminal phenylalanine. In chloroplasts, multiple receptors with overlapping and less stringent specificities have evolved, explaining the efficient heterologous import of native precursors from C. paradoxa.     

Multiple nucleosome positioning sites regulate the CTCF-mediated insulator function of the H19 imprinting control region

The 5' region of the H19 gene harbors a methylation-sensitive chromatin insulator within an imprinting control region (ICR). Insertional mutagenesis in combination with episomal assays identified nucleosome positioning sequences (NPSs) that set the stage for the remarkably precise distribution of the four target sites for the chromatin insulator protein CTCF to nucleosome linker sequences in the H19 ICR. Changing positions of the NPSs resulted in loss of both CTCF target site occupancy and insulator function, suggesting that the NPSs optimize the fidelity of the insulator function. We propose that the NPSs ensure the fidelity of the repressed status of the maternal Igf2 allele during development by constitutively maintaining availability of the CTCF target sites.     

Support for association of schizophrenia with genetic variation in the 6p22.3 gene,dysbindin, in sib-pair families with linkage and in an additional sample of triad families

Genetic variants in a gene on 6p22.3, dysbindin, have been shown recently to be associated with schizophrenia (Straub et al. 2002a). There is no doubt that replication in other independent samples would enhance the significance of this finding considerably. Since the gene is located in the center of the linkage peak on chromosome 6p that we reported earlier, we decided to test six of the most positive DNA polymorphisms in a sib-pair sample and in an independently ascertained sample of triads comprising 203 families, including the families for which we detected linkage on chromosome 6p. Evidence for association was observed in the two samples separately as well as in the combined sample (P=.00068 for SNP rs760761). Multilocus haplotype analysis increased the significance further to .00002 for a two-locus haplotype and to .00001 for a three-locus haplotype. Estimation of frequencies for six-locus haplotypes revealed one common haplotype with a frequency of 73.4% in transmitted, and only 57.6% in nontransmitted, parental haplotypes. All other six-locus haplotypes occurring at a frequency of >1% were less often transmitted than nontransmitted. Our results represent a first successful replication of linkage disequilibrium in psychiatric genetics detected in a region with previous evidence of linkage and will encourage the search for causes of schizophrenia by the genetic approach.     

cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulates Polysphondylium pallidum development

In eukaryotic cells, the universal second messenger cAMP regulates various aspects of development and differentiation. The primary target for cAMP is the regulatory subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA), which, upon cAMP binding, dissociates from the catalytic subunit and thus activates it. In the soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, the function of PKA in growth, development and cell differentiation has been thoroughly investigated and substantial information is available. To obtain a more general view, we investigated the influence of PKA on development of the related species Polysphondylium pallidum. Cells were transformed to overexpress either a dominant negative mutant of the regulatory subunit (Rm) from Dictyostelium that cannot bind cAMP, or the catalytic subunit (PKA-C) from Dictyostelium. Cells overexpressing Rm rarely aggregated and the few multicellular structures developed slowly into very small fruiting bodies without branching of secondary sorogens, the prominent feature of Polysphondylium. Few round spores with reduced viability were formed. When mixed with wild-type cells and allowed to develop, the Rm cells were randomly distributed in aggregation streams, but were later found in the posterior region of the culminating slug or were left behind on the surface of the substratum. The PKA-C overexpressing cells exhibited precocious development and formed more aggregates of smaller size. Moreover, expression of PKA-C under the control of the prestalk-specific ecmB promoter of Dictyostelium leads to protrusions from aggregation streams. We conclude that Dictyostelium PKA subunits introduced into Polysphondylium cells are functional as signal components, indicating that a biochemically similar PKA mechanism works in Polysphondylium.     

Analysis of Wnt8 for neural posteriorizing factor by identifying Frizzled 8c and Frizzled 9 as functional receptors for Wnt8

The dorsal ectoderm of vertebrate gastrula is first specified into anterior fate by an activation signal and posteriorized by a graded transforming signal, leading to the formation of forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain and spinal cord along the anteroposterior (A-P) axis. Transplanted non-axial mesoderm rather than axial mesoderm has an ability to transform prospective anterior neural tissue into more posterior fates in zebrafish. Wnt8 is a secreted factor that is expressed in non-axial mesoderm. To investigate whether Wnt8 is the neural posteriorizing factor that acts upon neuroectoderm, we first assigned Frizzled 8c and Frizzled 9 to be functional receptors for Wnt8. We then, transplanted non-axial mesoderm into the embryos in which Wnt8 signaling is cell-autonomously blocked by the dominant-negative form of Wnt8 receptors. Non-axial mesodermal transplants in embryos in which Wnt8 signaling is cell-autonomously blocked induced the posterior neural markers as efficiently as in wild-type embryos, suggesting that Wnt8 signaling is not required in neuroectoderm for posteriorization by non-axial mesoderm. Furthermore, Wnt8 signaling, detected by nuclear localization of beta-catenin, was not activated in the posterior neuroectoderm but confined in marginal non-axial mesoderm. Finally, ubiquitous over-expression of Wnt8 does not expand neural ectoderm of posterior character in the absence of mesoderm or Nodal-dependent co-factors. We thus conclude that other factors from non-axial mesoderm may be required for patterning neuroectoderm along the A-P axis.