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Mutant spastin proteins promote deficits in axonal transport through an isoform-specific mechanism involving casein kinase 2 activation
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Mutant spastin proteins promote deficits in axonal transport through an isoform-specific mechanism involving casein kinase 2 activation

Lanfranco Leo, Carina Weissmann, Matthew Burns, Minsu Kang, Yuyu Song, Liang Qiang, Scott T. Brady, Peter W. Baas and Gerardo Morfini
Human molecular genetics, v 26(12), pp 2321-2334
15 Jun 2017
PMID: 28398512
url
https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddx125View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Maybe Open Access (Publisher Bronze) Open

Abstract

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Genetics & Heredity Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology
Mutations of various genes cause hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), a neurological disease involving dying-back degeneration of upper motor neurons. From these, mutations in the SPAST gene encoding the microtubule-severing protein spastin account for most HSP cases. Cumulative genetic and experimental evidence suggests that alterations in various intracellular trafficking events, including fast axonal transport (FAT), may contribute to HSP pathogenesis. However, the mechanisms linking SPAST mutations to such deficits remain largely unknown. Experiments presented here using isolated squid axoplasm reveal inhibition of FAT as a common toxic effect elicited by spastin proteins with different HSP mutations, independent of microtubule-binding or severing activity. Mutant spastin proteins produce this toxic effect only when presented as the tissue-specific M1 isoform, not when presented as the ubiquitously-expressed shorter M87 isoform. Biochemical and pharmacological experiments further indicate that the toxic effects of mutant M1 spastins on FAT involve casein kinase 2 (CK2) activation. In mammalian cells, expression of mutant M1 spastins, but not their mutant M87 counterparts, promotes abnormalities in the distribution of intracellular organelles that are correctable by pharmacological CK2 inhibition. Collectively, these results demonstrate isoform-specific toxic effects of mutant M1 spastin on FAT, and identify CK2 as a critical mediator of these effects.

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Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Genetics & Heredity
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