Role of the Dictyostelium 30 kDa protein in actin bundle formation

Hirano bodies differentially modulate cell death induced by tau and the amyloid precursor protein intracellular domain

BACKGROUND

Hirano bodies are actin-rich paracrystalline inclusions found in brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and in normal aged individuals. Although studies of post-mortem brain tissue provide clues of etiology, the physiological function of Hirano bodies remains unknown. A cell culture model was utilized to study the interactions of mutant tau proteins, model Hirano bodies, and GSK3β in human astrocytoma cells.

RESULTS

Most tau variants showed co-localization with model Hirano bodies. Cosedimentation assays revealed this interaction may be direct, as recombinant purified forms of tau are all capable of binding F-actin. Model Hirano bodies had no effect or enhanced cell death induced by tau in the absence of amyloid precursor protein intracellular domain (AICD). In the presence of AICD and tau, synergistic cell death was observed in most cases, and model Hirano bodies decreased this synergistic cell death, except for forms of tau that caused significant cell death in the presence of Hirano bodies only. A role for the kinase GSK3β is suggested by the finding that a dominant negative form of GSK3β reduces this synergistic cell death. A subset of Hirano bodies in brain tissue of both Alzheimer's disease and normal aged individuals was found to contain tau, with some Hirano bodies in Alzheimer's disease brains containing hyperphosphorylated tau.

CONCLUSION

The results demonstrate a complex interaction between tau and AICD involving activation of GSK3β in promoting cell death, and the ability of Hirano bodies to modulate this process.

Formation of Hirano bodies induced by expression of an actin cross-linking protein with a gain-of-function mutation

Hirano bodies are paracrystalline actin filament-containing structures reported to be associated with a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. However, the biological function of Hirano bodies remains poorly understood, since nearly all prior studies of these structures were done with postmortem samples of tissue. In the present study, we generated a full-length form of a Dictyostelium 34-kDa actin cross-linking protein with point mutations in the first putative EF hand, termed 34-kDa DeltaEF1. The 34-kDa DeltaEF1 protein binds calcium normally but has activated actin binding that is unregulated by calcium. The expression of the 34-kDa DeltaEF1 protein in Dictyostelium induces the formation of Hirano bodies, as assessed by both fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Dictyostelium cells bearing Hirano bodies grow normally, indicating that Hirano bodies are not associated with cell death and are not deleterious to cell growth. Moreover, the expression of the 34-kDa DeltaEF1 protein rescues the phenotypes of cells lacking the 34-kDa protein and cells lacking both the 34-kDa protein and alpha-actinin. Finally, the expression of the 34-kDa DeltaEF1 protein also initiates the formation of Hirano bodies in cultured mouse fibroblasts. These results show that the failure to regulate the activity and/or affinity of an actin cross-linking protein can provide a signal for the formation of Hirano bodies. More generally, the formation of Hirano bodies is a cellular response to or a consequence of aberrant function of the actin cytoskeleton.

Calcium regulation of actin crosslinking is important for function of the actin cytoskeleton in Dictyostelium

The actin cytoskeleton is sensitive to changes in calcium, which affect contractility, actin-severing proteins, actin-crosslinking proteins and calmodulin-regulated enzymes. To dissect the role of calcium control on the activity of individual proteins from effects of calcium on other processes, calcium-insensitive forms of these proteins were prepared and introduced into living cells to replace a calcium-sensitive form of the same protein. Crosslinking and bundling of actin filaments by the Dictyostelium 34 kDa protein is inhibited in the presence of micromolar free calcium. A modified form of the 34 kDa protein with mutations in the calcium binding EF hand (34 kDa deltaEF2) was prepared using site-directed mutagenesis and expressed in E. coli. Equilibrium dialysis using [(45)Ca]CaCl(2) revealed that the wild-type protein is able to bind one calcium ion with a Kd of 2.4 microM. This calcium binding is absent in the 34 kDa deltaEF2 protein. The actin-binding activity of the 34 kDa deltaEF2 protein was equivalent to wildtype but calcium insensitive in vitro. The wild-type and 34 kDa deltaEF2 proteins were expressed in 34-kDa-null and 34 kDa/alpha-actinin double null mutant Dictyostelium strains to test the hypothesis that calcium regulation of actin crosslinking is important in vivo. The 34 kDa deltaEF2 failed to supply function of the 34 kDa protein important for control of cell size and for normal growth to either of these 34-kDa-null strains. Furthermore, the distribution of the 34 kDa protein and actin were abnormal in cells expressing 34 kDa deltaEF2. Thus, calcium regulation of the formation and/or dissolution of crosslinked actin structures is required for dynamic behavior of the actin cytoskeleton important for cell structure and growth.

Defining actin filament length in striated muscle: rulers and caps or dynamic stability?

Actin filaments (thin filaments) are polymerized to strikingly uniform lengths in striated muscle sarcomeres. Yet, actin monomers can exchange dynamically into thin filaments in vivo, indicating that actin monomer association and dissociation at filament ends must be highly regulated to maintain the uniformity of filament lengths. We propose several hypothetical mechanisms that could generate uniform actin filament length distributions and discuss their application to the determination of thin filament length in vivo. At the Z line, titin may determine the minimum extent and tropomyosin the maximum extent of thin filament overlap by regulating alpha-actinin binding to actin, while a unique Z filament may bind to capZ and regulate barbed end capping. For the free portion of the thin filament, we evaluate possibilities that thin filament components (e.g. nebulin or the tropomyosin/troponin polymer) determine thin filament lengths by binding directly to tropomodulin and regulating pointed end capping, or alternatively, that myosin thick filaments, together with titin, determine filament length by indirectly regulating tropomodulin's capping activity.

Overexpression, purification, and characterization of recombinant Dictyostelium discoideum calcium-regulated 34,000-dalton F-actin bundling protein from Escherichia coli

The Dictyostelium discoideum 34-kDa protein is an F-actin bundling protein that demonstrates diverse distributions in the cell during cell shape changes and cell movement. The protein is expressed at a very low level in the amoeba, just 0.4% of the total cell protein. This presents a challenging problem when purifying sufficient protein for structural and biochemical studies. The purification procedure is lengthy and yields only a few milligrams of protein. An alternative protein expression system, that of the bacterial T7 expression system, was used to produce large quantities of recombinant 34-kDa protein (r34-kDa). The soluble r34-kDa protein constitutes up to a quarter of the total bacterial protein, and was purified to homogeneity by a modification of the purification procedure for the native D. discoideum 34-kDa protein (N34-kDa). The r34-kDa possesses all the same functional characteristics as the N34-kDa protein with respect to its interactions with F-actin in vitro: it bound to and cross-linked F-actin, mediated F-actin bundle formation, directly bound calcium, and demonstrated calcium-sensitive F-actin binding activities.

The structure, function, and assembly of actin filament bundles

The cellular organization, function, and molecular composition of selected biological systems with prominent actin filament bundles are reviewed. An overall picture of the great variety of functions served by actin bundles emerges from this overview. A unifying theme is that the actin cross-linking proteins are conserved throughout the eukaryotic kingdom and yet assembled in a variety of combinations to produce actin bundles of differing functions. Mechanisms of actin bundle formation in vitro are considered illustrating the variety of physical and chemical driving forces in this exceedingly complex process. Our limited knowledge regarding the formation of actin filament bundles in vivo is contrasted with the elegant biophysical studies performed in vitro but nonetheless reveals that interactions with membranes, nucleation sites, and other organizational components must contribute to formation of actin bundles in vivo.