Primary cilia were the largely neglected nonmotile counterparts of their better-known cousin, the motile cilia. For years these nonmotile cilia were considered evolutionary remnants of little ...consequence to cellular function. Fast forward 10 years and we now recognize primary cilia as key integrators of extracellular ligand-based signaling and cellular polarity, which regulate neuronal cell fate, migration, differentiation, as well as a host of adult behaviors. Important future questions will focus on structure-function relationships, their roles in signaling and disease and as areas of target for treatments.
Primary cilia emerge as key regulators of development, neurogenesis, and signaling in the mammalian brain. Guemez-Gamboa et al. review the status, genetic basis, potential, controversies, and unanswered questions.
Soon, the genetic basis of most human Mendelian diseases will be solved. The next challenge will be to leverage this information to uncover basic mechanisms of disease and develop new therapies. To ...understand how this transformation is already beginning to unfold, we focus on the ciliopathies, a class of multi-organ diseases caused by disruption of the primary cilium. Through a convergence of data involving mutant gene discovery, proteomics, and cell biology, more than a dozen phenotypically distinguishable conditions are now united as ciliopathies. Sitting at the interface between simple and complex genetic conditions, these diseases provide clues to the future direction of human genetics.
Zika virus (ZIKV)-related neuropathology is an important global health concern. Several studies have shown that ZIKV can infect neural stem cells in the developing brain, but infection in the adult ...brain has not been examined. Two areas in the adult mouse brain contain neural stem cells: the subventricular zone of the anterior forebrain and the subgranular zone of the hippocampus. Here, using 6-week-old mice triply deficient in interferon regulatory factor (IRF) as a model, we show that blood-borne ZIKV administration can lead to pronounced evidence of ZIKV infection in these adult neural stem cells, leading to cell death and reduced proliferation. Our data therefore suggest that adult as well as fetal neural stem cells are vulnerable to ZIKV neuropathology. Thus, although ZIKV is considered a transient infection in adult humans without marked long-term effects, there may in fact be consequences of exposure in the adult brain.
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•Zika virus (ZIKV) can infect neural progenitors in the adult mouse brain•ZIKV-infected adult NPCs show evidence of cell death•Cell proliferation is also impacted in ZIKV-infected adult NPC populations
Li et al. show that peripheral ZIKV exposure in a mouse model can infect adult neural stem cells in the brain, leading to cell death and reduced proliferation. Thus, in addition to impacting fetal development, ZIKV infection may also have negative effects on the adult brain.
Autosomal-recessive loss of the NSUN2 gene has been identified as a causative link to intellectual disability disorders in humans. NSun2 is an RNA methyltransferase modifying cytosine-5 in transfer ...RNAs (tRNAs), yet the identification of cytosine methylation in other RNA species has been hampered by the lack of sensitive and reliable molecular techniques. Here, we describe miCLIP as an additional approach for identifying RNA methylation sites in transcriptomes. miCLIP is a customized version of the individual-nucleotide-resolution crosslinking and immunoprecipitation (iCLIP) method. We confirm site-specific methylation in tRNAs and additional messenger and noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Among these, vault ncRNAs contained six NSun2-methylated cytosines, three of which were confirmed by RNA bisulfite sequencing. Using patient cells lacking the NSun2 protein, we further show that loss of cytosine-5 methylation in vault RNAs causes aberrant processing into Argonaute-associated small RNA fragments that can function as microRNAs. Thus, impaired processing of vault ncRNA may contribute to the etiology of NSun2-deficiency human disorders.
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•miCLIP detects NSun2-mediated cytosine-5 methylation in RNA•Vault noncoding RNA is methylated by NSun2•Cytosine-5 in Vault RNA determines its processing into small RNA (svRNA)•svRNAs bind to Argonaute proteins and exhibit microRNA-like functions
Comprehensive analyses of cytosine-5 methylation in the RNA transcriptome have previously been hampered by the lack of sensitive and reliable molecular techniques. In this work, Ule, Frye, and colleagues describe the methylation-iCLIP (miCLIP) method that they used to identify target sites of the RNA methyltransferase, NSun2. Among the targeted noncoding RNAs were vault RNAs, previously associated with resistance to chemotherapy in cancer. They further show how NSun2-mediated methylation of vault ncRNAs influences their processing into small microRNA-like molecules.
Primary cilia are generally solitary organelles that emanate from the surface of almost all vertebrate cell types. Until recently, details regarding the function of these structures were lacking; ...however, extensive evidence now suggests that primary cilia have critical roles in sensing the extracellular environment, and in coordinating developmental and homeostatic signalling pathways. Furthermore, disruption of these functions seems to underlie a diverse spectrum of disorders, known as primary ciliopathies. These disorders are characterized by wide-ranging clinical and genetic heterogeneity, but with substantial overlap among distinct conditions. Indeed, ciliopathies are associated with a large variety of manifestations that often include distinctive neurological findings. Herein, we review neurological features associated with primary ciliopathies, highlight genotype-phenotype correlations, and discuss potential mechanisms underlying these findings.
Posttranscriptional modifications in transfer RNA (tRNA) are often critical for normal development because they adapt protein synthesis rates to a dynamically changing microenvironment. However, the ...precise cellular mechanisms linking the extrinsic stimulus to the intrinsic RNA modification pathways remain largely unclear. Here, we identified the cytosine-5 RNA methyltransferase NSUN2 as a sensor for external stress stimuli. Exposure to oxidative stress efficiently repressed NSUN2, causing a reduction of methylation at specific tRNA sites. Using metabolic profiling, we showed that loss of tRNA methylation captured cells in a distinct catabolic state. Mechanistically, loss of NSUN2 altered the biogenesis of tRNA-derived noncoding fragments (tRFs) in response to stress, leading to impaired regulation of protein synthesis. The intracellular accumulation of a specific subset of tRFs correlated with the dynamic repression of global protein synthesis. Finally, NSUN2-driven RNA methylation was functionally required to adapt cell cycle progression to the early stress response. In summary, we revealed that changes in tRNA methylation profiles were sufficient to specify cellular metabolic states and efficiently adapt protein synthesis rates to cell stress.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Clinical evidence suggests the central nervous system is frequently impacted by SARS-CoV-2 infection, either directly or indirectly, although the mechanisms are unclear. Pericytes are perivascular ...cells within the brain that are proposed as SARS-CoV-2 infection points. Here we show that pericyte-like cells (PLCs), when integrated into a cortical organoid, are capable of infection with authentic SARS-CoV-2. Before infection, PLCs elicited astrocytic maturation and production of basement membrane components, features attributed to pericyte functions in vivo. While traditional cortical organoids showed little evidence of infection, PLCs within cortical organoids served as viral 'replication hubs', with virus spreading to astrocytes and mediating inflammatory type I interferon transcriptional responses. Therefore, PLC-containing cortical organoids (PCCOs) represent a new 'assembloid' model that supports astrocytic maturation as well as SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication in neural tissue; thus, PCCOs serve as an experimental model for neural infection.
A group of disorders with disparate symptomatology, including congenital cerebellar ataxia, retinal blindness, liver fibrosis, polycystic kidney disease, and polydactyly, have recently been united ...under a single disease mechanism called ‘ciliopathies’. The ciliopathies are due to defects of the cellular antenna known as the primary cilium, a microtubule‐based extension of cellular membranes found in nearly all cell types. Key among these ciliopathies is Joubert syndrome, displaying ataxia, oculomotor apraxia, and mental retardation* with a pathognomonic ‘molar tooth sign’ on brain magnetic resonance imaging. The importance of ciliary function in neuronal development has been appreciated only in the last decade with the classification of Joubert syndrome as a ciliopathy. This, together with the identification of many of the clinical features of ciliopathies in individuals with Joubert syndrome and the localization of Joubert syndrome’s causative gene products at or near the primary cilium, have defined a new class of neurological disease. Cilia are involved in diverse cellular processes including protein trafficking, photoreception, embryonic axis patterning, and cell cycle regulation. Ciliary dysfunction can affect a single tissue or manifest as multi‐organ involvement. Ciliary defects have been described in retinopathies such as retinitis pigmentosa and Leber congenital amaurosis (defects in photoreceptor ciliary protein complexes), renal syndromes with nephronophthisis and cystic dysplastic kidneys, and liver conditions such as fibrosis and biliary cirrhosis. Recognizing the diverse presentations of the ciliopathies and screening strategies following diagnosis is an important part of the treatment plan of children with cilia‐related disorders.
Neurodegenerative diseases can occur so early as to affect neurodevelopment. From a cohort of more than 2,000 consanguineous families with childhood neurological disease, we identified a founder ...mutation in four independent pedigrees in cleavage and polyadenylation factor I subunit 1 (CLP1). CLP1 is a multifunctional kinase implicated in tRNA, mRNA, and siRNA maturation. Kinase activity of the CLP1 mutant protein was defective, and the tRNA endonuclease complex (TSEN) was destabilized, resulting in impaired pre-tRNA cleavage. Germline clp1 null zebrafish showed cerebellar neurodegeneration that was rescued by wild-type, but not mutant, human CLP1 expression. Patient-derived induced neurons displayed both depletion of mature tRNAs and accumulation of unspliced pre-tRNAs. Transfection of partially processed tRNA fragments into patient cells exacerbated an oxidative stress-induced reduction in cell survival. Our data link tRNA maturation to neuronal development and neurodegeneration through defective CLP1 function in humans.
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•A human CLP1 mutation causes brain and motor neuron degeneration•Mutation impairs kinase activity, nuclear localization, and TSEN complex assembly•Patient iNeurons have accumulated pre-tRNA and reduced mature tRNA•Clp1 mutant zebrafish display p53-dependent neurodegeneration
A mutation in the human RNA kinase Clp1 perturbs tRNA biogenesis and promotes susceptibility to apoptosis, leading to a complex neurological phenotype.
De novo somatic mutations in focal areas are well documented in diseases such as neoplasia but are rarely reported in malformation of the developing brain. Hemimegalencephaly (HME) is characterized ...by overgrowth of either one of the two cerebral hemispheres. The molecular etiology of HME remains a mystery. The intractable epilepsy that is associated with HME can be relieved by the surgical treatment hemispherectomy, allowing sampling of diseased tissue. Exome sequencing and mass spectrometry analysis in paired brain-blood samples from individuals with HME (n = 20 cases) identified de novo somatic mutations in 30% of affected individuals in the PIK3CA, AKT3 and MTOR genes. A recurrent PIK3CA c.1633G>A mutation was found in four separate cases. Identified mutations were present in 8-40% of sequenced alleles in various brain regions and were associated with increased neuronal S6 protein phosphorylation in the brains of affected individuals, indicating aberrant activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling. Thus HME is probably a genetically mosaic disease caused by gain of function in phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-AKT3-mTOR signaling.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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