Ataxia and abnormal cerebellar microorganization in mice with ablated contactin gene expression

Axon guidance and target recognition depend on neuronal cell surface receptors that recognize and elicit selective growth cone responses to guidance cues in the environment. Contactin, a cell adhesion/recognition molecule of the immunoglobulin gene superfamily, regulates axon growth and fasciculation in vitro, but its role in vivo is unknown. To assess its function in the developing nervous system, we have ablated contactin gene expression in mice. Contactin-/- mutants displayed a severe ataxic phenotype consistent with defects in the cerebellum and survived only until postnatal day 18. Analysis of the contactin-/- mutant cerebellum revealed defects in granule cell axon guidance and in dendritic projections from granule and Golgi cells. These results demonstrate that contactin controls axonal and dendritic interactions of cerebellar interneurons and contributes to cerebellar microorganization.

The brain chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan brevican associates with astrocytes ensheathing cerebellar glomeruli and inhibits neurite outgrowth from granule neurons

Brevican is a nervous system-specific chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan that belongs to the aggrecan family and is one of the most abundant chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans in adult brain. To gain insights into the role of brevican in brain development, we investigated its spatiotemporal expression, cell surface binding, and effects on neurite outgrowth, using rat cerebellar cortex as a model system. Immunoreactivity of brevican occurs predominantly in the protoplasmic islet in the internal granular layer after the third postnatal week. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that brevican is localized in close association with the surface of astrocytes that form neuroglial sheaths of cerebellar glomeruli where incoming mossy fibers interact with dendrites and axons from resident neurons. In situ hybridization showed that brevican is synthesized by these astrocytes themselves. In primary cultures of cerebellar astrocytes, brevican is detected on the surface of these cells. Binding assays with exogenously added brevican revealed that primary astrocytes and several immortalized neural cell lines have cell surface binding sites for brevican core protein. These cell surface brevican binding sites recognize the C-terminal portion of the core protein and are independent of cell surface hyaluronan. These results indicate that brevican is synthesized by astrocytes and retained on their surface by an interaction involving its core protein. Purified brevican inhibits neurite outgrowth from cerebellar granule neurons in vitro, an activity that requires chondroitin sulfate chains. We suggest that brevican presented on the surface of neuroglial sheaths may be controlling the infiltration of axons and dendrites into maturing glomeruli.

Human STX polysialyltransferase forms the embryonic form of the neural cell adhesion molecule. Tissue-specific expression, neurite outgrowth, and chromosomal localization in comparison with another polysialyltransferase, PST

PST and STX are polysialyltransferases that form polysialic acid in the neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM), although it is not known why these two polysialyltransferases exist. In the present study, we have first isolated cDNA encoding human STX, which includes 5'-untranslated sequence. Northern blot analysis, using this cDNA and PST cDNA previously isolated by us, demonstrated that PST and STX are expressed in different fetal and adult tissues. STX is primarily expressed in embryonic tissues, but only modestly in adult heart, brain, and thymus. PST, on the other hand, is continuously expressed in adult heart, brain, thymus, spleen, small and large intestines, and peripheral blood leukocytes. In various parts of adult brain, the relative amount of PST and STX appears to be substantially different depending on the regions. The analysis by in situ hybridization of mouse adult brain, however, suggests that polysialic acid in the hippocampal formation is synthesized by both STX and PST. HeLa cells doubly transfected with the isolated STX cDNA and N-CAM cDNA supported neurite outgrowth much better than HeLa cells expressing N-CAM alone. However, polysialic acid synthesized by PST appears to be a better substratum than that synthesized by STX. Moreover, the genes for PST and STX were found to reside at chromosome 5, band p21 and chromosome 15, band q26, respectively. These results, taken together, strongly suggest that PST and STX are expressed distinctly in tissue-specific and cell-specific manners and that they apparently have distinct roles in development and organogenesis.

Expression cloning of a human polysialyltransferase that forms the polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule present in embryonic brain

Polysialic acid is a developmentally regulated posttranslational modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM). It has been suggested that this large anionic carbohydrate modulates the adhesive property of N-CAM, but the precise function of polysialic acid is not known. Here we describe the isolation and functional expression of a cDNA encoding a human polysialyltransferase. For this expression cloning, COS-1 cells were cotransfected with a human fetal brain cDNA library and a cDNA encoding human N-CAM. Transfected COS-1 cells were stained with a monoclonal antibody specific for polysialic acid and enriched by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Sibling selection of recovered plasmids resulted in a cDNA clone that directs the expression of polysialic acid on the cell surface. The deduced amino acid sequence indicates that the polysialyltransferase shares a common sequence motif with other sialyltransferases cloned so far. The polysialyltransferase is, however, distinct by having two clusters of basic amino acids. The amount of the polysialyltransferase transcripts correlates well with the formation of polysialic acid in various human tissues, and is abundant in the fetal brain but not in the adult brain. Moreover, HeLa cells stably expressing polysialic acid and N-CAM promoted neurite outgrowth and sprouting. These results indicate that the cloned polysialyltransferase forms polysialylated, embryonic N-CAM, which is critical for plasticity of neural cells.

Regulation and activity-dependence of N-cadherin, NCAM isoforms, and polysialic acid on chick myotubes during development

Muscle development in vivo involves a complex sequence of cell-cell interactions in which secondary myotubes first form in association with primary myotubes and subsequently separate from them. We show here that during this process N-cadherin and the different structural forms of NCAM are regulated in a pattern that involves both temporal changes in expression and localization to particular regions of the muscle cell surface. In particular, levels of N-cadherin on maturing myotubes are decreased, and the form of NCAM synthesized by the muscle changes from a transmembrane non-polysialylated to a lipid-linked polysialylated membrane protein. Moreover, while NCAM was distributed on all myotube surfaces, the polysialyated form of NCAM was restricted to regions of the myotube surface that had recently separated from neighboring cells. We previously found that blockade of nerve-induced activity by d-Tubocurarine perturbed muscle cell interactions, resulting in a failure of myotubes to separate. We now show that this activity blockade also alters adhesion molecule expression. First, N-cadherin was no longer down-regulated in maturing myotubes, and its persistence on the surfaces of mature myotubes may partly explain their failure to separate. Secondly, the developmental switch from transmembrane to lipid-linked NCAM did not occur, and polysialylated NCAM was no longer formed. As the unusual physical properties of PSA have been proposed to impede cell-cell interactions, this alteration would also be expected to compromise cell separation. Together, these results suggest that the regulated expression of both N-cadherin and NCAM isoforms including their polysialylation, is an essential mechanism for the normal separation of secondary myotubes from primary myotubes.