N-cadherin regulates p38 MAPK signaling via association with JNK-associated leucine zipper protein: implications for neurodegeneration in Alzheimer disease

Synaptic loss, which strongly correlates with the decline of cognitive function, is one of the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer disease. N-cadherin is a cell adhesion molecule essential for synaptic contact and is involved in the intracellular signaling pathway at the synapse. Here we report that the functional disruption of N-cadherin-mediated cell contact activated p38 MAPK in murine primary neurons, followed by neuronal death. We further observed that treatment with Aβ(42) decreased cellular N-cadherin expression through NMDA receptors accompanied by increased phosphorylation of both p38 MAPK and Tau in murine primary neurons. Moreover, expression levels of phosphorylated p38 MAPK were negatively correlated with that of N-cadherin in human brains. Proteomic analysis of human brains identified a novel interaction between N-cadherin and JNK-associated leucine zipper protein (JLP), a scaffolding protein involved in the p38 MAPK signaling pathway. We demonstrated that N-cadherin expression had an inhibitory effect on JLP-mediated p38 MAPK signal activation by decreasing the interaction between JLP and p38 MAPK in COS7 cells. Also, this study demonstrated a novel physical and functional association between N-cadherin and p38 MAPK and suggested neuroprotective roles of cadherin-based synaptic contact. The dissociation of N-cadherin-mediated synaptic contact by Aβ may underlie the pathological basis of neurodegeneration such as neuronal death, synaptic loss, and Tau phosphorylation in Alzheimer disease brain.     

Endodermal differentiation of murine embryonic carcinoma cells by retinoic acid requires JLP, a JNK-scaffolding protein

Retinoic acid (RA) is a morphogen that induces endodermal differentiation of murine P19 embryonic carcinoma cells. RA-induced differentiation of P19 cells has been used as a model system to define the differentiation programs of pluripotent stem cells. Using this system it has been shown that G alpha13--the alpha-subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein G13--and its activation of JNK-module are critically required for the endodermal differentiation of P19 cells. However, the mechanism through which G alpha13 is linked to JNK-module is unknown. Here, we report that RA stimulates the expression of JNK-interacting leucine zipper protein (JLP), a newly identified JNK-scaffolding protein and its critical role in RA-mediated endodermal differentiation. Our results indicate that there is a physical association between JLP and G alpha13 in RA-stimulated P19 cells. More interestingly, silencing JLP abrogates RA-mediated endodermal differentiation of P19 cells analogous to the effects seen with the silencing of G alpha13 or JNK. Therefore, our studies presented here identify for the first time, a novel role for a newly identified scaffolding protein in RA-mediated endodermal differentiation, providing a new signaling conduit to transmit signals from RA to JNK module.     

Ablation of the scaffold protein JLP causes reduced fertility in male mice

The specific and efficient activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling modules is mediated, at least in part, by scaffold proteins. c-Jun NH₂-terminal kinase (JNK)-associated leucine zipper protein (JLP) was identified as a scaffold protein for JNK and p38 MAPK signaling modules. JLP is expressed nearly ubiquitously and is involved in intracellular signaling pathways, such as the G_α13 and Cdo-mediated pathway, in vitro. To date, however, JLP expression has not been analyzed in detail, nor are its physiological functions well understood. Here we investigated the expression of JLP in the mouse testis during development. Of the tissues examined, JLP was strongest in the testis, with the most intense staining in the elongated spermatids. Since the anti-JLP antibody used in this study can recognize both JLP and sperm-associated antigen 9 (SPAG9), a splice variant of JLP that has been studied extensively in primates, we also examined its expression in macaque testis samples. Our results indicated that in mouse and primate testis, the isoform expressed at the highest level was JLP, not SPAG9. We also investigated the function of JLP by disrupting the Jlp gene in mice, and found that the male homozygotes were subfertile. Taken together, these observations may suggest that JLP plays an important role in testis during development, especially in the production of functionally normal spermatozoa. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Asuka Iwanaga and Guangmin Wang contributed equally to this study.     

The scaffold protein JIP3 functions as a downstream effector of the small GTPase ARF6 to regulate neurite morphogenesis of cortical neurons

The small GTPase ADP-ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6) plays crucial roles in a wide variety of cell functions. To better understand the molecular mechanisms of ARF6-mediated signaling and cellular functions, we sought new ARF6-binding proteins in the mouse brain. We identified the signaling scaffold protein JNK-interacting protein 3 (JIP3), which is exclusively expressed in neurons, as a downstream effector of ARF6. Overexpression of a unique dominant negative mutant of ARF6, which was unable to interact with JIP3, and knockdown of JIP3 in mouse cortical neurons stimulated the elongation and branching of neurites. These results provide evidence that ARF6/JIP3 signaling regulates neurite morphogenesis.

Structured summary

MINT-7892698: PIP5K gamma 661 (uniprotkb:O70161) physically interacts (MI:0915) with Arf6 (uniprotkb:P62331) by anti tag coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0007)MINT-7892333, MINT-7892573, MINT-7892594, MINT-7892629, MINT-7892644, MINT-7892522, MINT-7892716: Arf6 (uniprotkb:P62331) physically interacts (MI:0915) with JLP (uniprotkb:Q58A65) by anti tag coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0007)MINT-7892509: Arf6 (uniprotkb:P62331) physically interacts (MI:0915) with JIP3 (uniprotkb:Q9ESN9) by pull down (MI:0096)MINT-7892770: Arf6 (uniprotkb:P62331) binds (MI:0407) to JIP3 (uniprotkb:Q9ESN9) by pull down (MI:0096)MINT-7892755: Arf6 (uniprotkb:P62331) binds (MI:0407) to JLP (uniprotkb:Q58A65) by pull down (MI:0096)MINT-7892289, MINT-7892314: Arf6 (uniprotkb:P62331) physically interacts (MI:0915) with JLP (uniprotkb:Q58A65) by pull down (MI:0096)MINT-7892353, MINT-7892615, MINT-7892657, MINT-7892672, MINT-7892549, MINT-7892738: Arf6 (uniprotkb:P62331) physically interacts (MI:0915) with JIP3 (uniprotkb:Q9ESN9) by anti tag coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0007)