Beth A. Wilson

A Nonsense Mutation in the Inward Rectifier Potassium Channel Gene, Kir6.2, Is Associated With Familial Hyperinsulinism

ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels are an essential component of glucose-dependent insulin secretion in pancreatic islet β-cells. These channels comprise the sulfonylurea receptor (SUR1) and Kir6.2, a member of the inward rectifier K+ channel family. Mutations in the SUR1 subunit are associated with familial hyperinsulinism (HI) (MIM:256450), an inherited disorder characterized by hyperinsulinism in the neonate. Since the Kir6.2 gene maps to human chromosome 11p15.1 (1,2), which also encompasses a locus for HI, we screened the Kir6.2 gene for the presence of mutations in 78 HI probands by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and nucleotide sequence analyses. A nonsense mutation, Tyr→Stop at codon 12 (designated Y12X) was observed in the homozygous state in a single proband. 86Rb+ efflux measurements and single-channel recordings of COS-1 cells co-expressing SUR1 and either wild-type or Y12X mutant Kir6.2 proteins confirmed that KATP channel activity was abolished by this nonsense mutation. The identification of an HI patient homozygous for the Kir6.2/Y12X allele affords an opportunity to observe clinical features associated with mutations resulting in an absence of Kir6.2. These data provide evidence that mutations in the Kir6.2 sub-unit of the islet β-cell KATP channel are associated with the HI phenotype and also suggest that the majority of HI cases are not attributable to mutations in the coding region of the Kir6.2 gene.

pannier and pointedP2 act sequentially to regulate Drosophila heart development

The Drosophila heart consists of two major cell types: cardioblasts, which form the contractile tube of the heart; and pericardial cells, which flank the cardioblasts and are thought to filter and detoxify the blood or hemolymph of the fly. We present the completion of the entire cell lineage of all heart cells. Notably, we detect a previously unappreciated distinction between the lineages of heart cells located in the posterior seven segments relative to those located more anteriorly. Using a genetic screen, we have identified the ETS-transcription factor pointed as a key regulator of cardioblast and pericardial cell fates in the posterior seven segments of the heart. In this domain, pointed promotes pericardial cell development and opposes cardioblast development. We find that this function of pointed is carried out primarily if not exclusively by the pointedP2 isoform and, that in this context, pointedP2 may act independently of Ras/MAPK pathway activity. We go on to show that the GATA transcription factor pannier acts early in dorsal mesoderm development to promote the development of the cardiac mesoderm and thus all heart cells. Finally, we demonstrate that pannier acts upstream of pointed in a developmental pathway in which pannier promotes cardiac mesoderm formation, and pointed acts subsequently in this domain to distinguish between cardioblast and pericardial cell fates.

The expression and function of the achaete-scute genes in Tribolium castaneum reveals conservation and variation in neural pattern formation and cell fate specification

The study of achaete-scute (ac/sc) genes has recently become a paradigm to understand the evolution and development of the arthropod nervous system. We describe the identification and characterization of the ac/sc genes in the coleopteran insect species Tribolium castaneum. We have identified two Tribolium ac/sc genes - achaete-scute homolog (Tc-ASH) a proneural gene and asense (Tc-ase) a neural precursor gene that reside in a gene complex. Focusing on the embryonic central nervous system we find that Tc-ASH is expressed in all neural precursors and the proneural clusters from which they segregate. Through RNAi and misexpression studies we show that Tc-ASH is necessary for neural precursor formation in Tribolium and sufficient for neural precursor formation in Drosophila. Comparison of the function of the Drosophila and Tribolium proneural ac/sc genes suggests that in the Drosophila lineage these genes have maintained their ancestral function in neural precursor formation and have acquired a new role in the fate specification of individual neural precursors. Furthermore, we find that Tc-ase is expressed in all neural precursors suggesting an important and conserved role for asense genes in insect nervous system development. Our analysis of the Tribolium ac/sc genes indicates significant plasticity in gene number, expression and function, and implicates these modifications in the evolution of arthropod neural development.

Cullin-3 regulates pattern formation, external sensory organ development and cell survival during Drosophila development

Ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis regulates the steady-state abundance of proteins and controls cellular homoeostasis by abrupt elimination of key effector proteins. A multienzyme system targets proteins for destruction through the covalent attachment of a multiubiquitin chain. The specificity and timing of protein ubiquitination is controlled by ubiquitin ligases, such as the Skp1-Cullin-F box protein complex. Cullins are major components of SCF complexes, and have been implicated in degradation of key regulatory molecules including Cyclin E, beta-catenin and Cubitus interruptus. Here, we describe the genetic identification and molecular characterisation of the Drosophila Cullin-3 homologue. Perturbation of Cullin-3 function has pleiotropic effects during development, including defects in external sensory organ development, pattern formation and cell growth and survival. Loss or overexpression of Cullin-3 causes an increase or decrease, respectively, in external sensory organ formation, implicating Cullin-3 function in regulating the commitment of cells to the neural fate. We also find that Cullin-3 function modulates Hedgehog signalling by regulating the stability of full-length Cubitus interruptus (Ci155). Loss of Cullin-3 function in eye discs but not other imaginal discs promotes cell-autonomous accumulation of Ci155. Conversely, overexpression of Cullin-3 results in a cell-autonomous stabilisation of Ci155 in wing, haltere and leg, but not eye, imaginal discs suggesting tissue-specific regulation of Cullin-3 function. The diverse nature of Cullin-3 phenotypes highlights the importance of targeted proteolysis during Drosophila development.

Sanpodo: a context-dependent activator and inhibitor of Notch signaling during asymmetric divisions.

Asymmetric cell divisions generate sibling cells of distinct fates (‘A’, ‘B’) and constitute a fundamental mechanism that creates cell-type diversity in multicellular organisms. Antagonistic interactions between the Notch pathway and the intrinsic cell-fate determinant Numb appear to regulate asymmetric divisions in flies and vertebrates. During these divisions, productive Notch signaling requires sanpodo, which encodes a novel transmembrane protein. Here, we demonstrate that Drosophila sanpodo plays a dual role to regulate Notch signaling during asymmetric divisions — amplifying Notch signaling in the absence of Numb in the ‘A’ daughter cell and inhibiting Notch signaling in the presence of Numb in the ‘B’ daughter cell. In so doing, sanpodo ensures the asymmetry in Notch signaling levels necessary for the acquisition of distinct fates by the two daughter cells. These findings answer long-standing questions about the restricted ability of Numb and Sanpodo to inhibit and to promote, respectively, Notch signaling during asymmetric divisions.

dbx mediates neuronal specification and differentiation through cross-repressive, lineage-specific interactions with eve and hb9.

Individual neurons adopt and maintain defined morphological and physiological phenotypes as a result of the expression of specific combinations of transcription factors. In particular, homeodomain-containing transcription factors play key roles in determining neuronal subtype identity in flies and vertebrates. dbx belongs to the highly divergent H2.0 family of homeobox genes. In vertebrates, Dbx1 and Dbx2 promote the development of a subset of interneurons, some of which help mediate left-right coordination of locomotor activity. Here, we identify and show that the single Drosophila ortholog of Dbx1/2 contributes to the development of specific subsets of interneurons via cross-repressive, lineage-specific interactions with the motoneuron-promoting factors eve and hb9 (exex). dbx is expressed primarily in interneurons of the embryonic, larval and adult central nervous system, and these interneurons tend to extend short axons and be GABAergic. Interestingly, many Dbx+ interneurons share a sibling relationship with Eve+ or Hb9+ motoneurons. The non-overlapping expression of dbx and eve, or dbx and hb9, within pairs of sibling neurons is initially established as a result of Notch/Numb-mediated asymmetric divisions. Cross-repressive interactions between dbx and eve, and dbx and hb9, then help maintain the distinct expression profiles of these genes in their respective pairs of sibling neurons. Strict maintenance of the mutually exclusive expression of dbx relative to that of eve and hb9 in sibling neurons is crucial for proper neuronal specification, as misexpression of dbx in motoneurons dramatically hinders motor axon outgrowth.

Linking pattern formation to cell-type specification : Dichaete and ind directly repress achaete gene expression in the Drosophila CNS

Mechanisms regulating CNS pattern formation and neural precursor formation are remarkably conserved between Drosophila and vertebrates. However, to date, few direct connections have been made between genes that pattern the early CNS and those that trigger neural precursor formation. Here, we use Drosophila to link directly the function of two evolutionarily conserved regulators of CNS pattern along the dorsoventral axis, the homeodomain protein Ind and the Sox-domain protein Dichaete, to the spatial regulation of the proneural gene achaete (ac) in the embryonic CNS. We identify a minimal achaete regulatory region that recapitulates half of the wild-type ac expression pattern in the CNS and find multiple putative Dichaete-, Ind-, and Vnd-binding sites within this region. Consensus Dichaete sites are often found adjacent to those for Vnd and Ind, suggesting that Dichaete associates with Ind or Vnd on target promoters. Consistent with this finding, we observe that Dichaete can physically interact with Ind and Vnd. Finally, we demonstrate the in vivo requirement of adjacent Dichaete and Ind sites in the repression of ac gene expression in the CNS. Our data identify a direct link between the molecules that pattern the CNS and those that specify distinct cell-types.

Genome-wide identification of Drosophila Hb9 targets reveals a pivotal role in directing the transcriptome within eight neuronal lineages, including activation of nitric oxide synthase and Fd59a/Fox-D.

Hb9 is a homeodomain-containing transcription factor that acts in combination with Nkx6, Lim3, and Tail-up (Islet) to guide the stereotyped differentiation, connectivity, and function of a subset of neurons in Drosophila. The role of Hb9 in directing neuronal differentiation is well documented, but the lineage of Hb9(+) neurons is only partly characterized, its regulation is poorly understood, and most of the downstream genes through which it acts remain at large. Here, we complete the lineage tracing of all embryonic Hb9(+) neurons (to eight neuronal lineages) and provide evidence that hb9, lim3, and tail-up are coordinately regulated by a common set of upstream factors. Through the parallel use of micro-array gene expression profiling and the Dam-ID method, we searched for Hb9-regulated genes, uncovering transcription factors as the most over-represented class of genes regulated by Hb9 (and Nkx6) in the CNS. By a nearly ten-to-one ratio, Hb9 represses rather than activates transcription factors, highlighting transcriptional repression of other transcription factors as a core mechanism by which Hb9 governs neuronal determination. From the small set of genes activated by Hb9, we characterized the expression and function of two - fd59a/foxd, which encodes a transcription factor, and Nitric oxide synthase. Under standard lab conditions, both genes are dispensable for Drosophila development, but Nos appears to inhibit hyper-active behavior and fd59a appears to act in octopaminergic neurons to control egg-laying behavior. Together our data clarify the mechanisms through which Hb9 governs neuronal specification and differentiation and provide an initial characterization of the expression and function of Nos and fd59a in the Drosophila CNS.

Transcription factor expression uniquely identifies most postembryonic neuronal lineages in the Drosophila thoracic central nervous system

Most neurons of the adult Drosophila ventral nerve cord arise from a burst of neurogenesis during the third larval instar stage. Most of this growth occurs in thoracic neuromeres, which contain 25 individually identifiable postembryonic neuronal lineages. Initially, each lineage consists of two hemilineages - ‘A’ (NotchOn) and ‘B’ (NotchOff) - that exhibit distinct axonal trajectories or fates. No reliable method presently exists to identify these lineages or hemilineages unambiguously other than labor-intensive lineage-tracing methods. By combining mosaic analysis with a repressible cell marker (MARCM) analysis with gene expression studies, we constructed a gene expression map that enables the rapid, unambiguous identification of 23 of the 25 postembryonic lineages based on the expression of 15 transcription factors. Pilot genetic studies reveal that these transcription factors regulate the specification and differentiation of postembryonic neurons: for example, Nkx6 is necessary and sufficient to direct axonal pathway selection in lineage 3. The gene expression map thus provides a descriptive foundation for the genetic and molecular dissection of adult-specific neurogenesis and identifies many transcription factors that are likely to regulate the development and differentiation of discrete subsets of postembryonic neurons.

The extracellular metalloprotease AdamTS-A anchors neural lineages in place within and preserves the architecture of the central nervous system

The extracellular matrix (ECM) regulates cell migration and sculpts organ shape. AdamTS proteins are extracellular metalloproteases known to modify ECM proteins and promote cell migration, but demonstrated roles for AdamTS proteins in regulating CNS structure and ensuring cell lineages remain fixed in place have not been uncovered. Using forward genetic approaches in Drosophila, we find that reduction of AdamTS-A function induces both the mass exodus of neural lineages out of the CNS and drastic perturbations to CNS structure. Expressed and active in surface glia, AdamTS-A acts in parallel to perlecan and in opposition to viking/collagen IV and βPS-integrin to keep CNS lineages rooted in place and to preserve the structural integrity of the CNS. viking/collagen IV and βPS-integrin are known to promote tissue stiffness and oppose the function of perlecan, which reduces tissue stiffness. Our work supports a model in which AdamTS-A anchors cells in place and preserves CNS architecture by reducing tissue stiffness. Highlighted Article: By opposing the actions of viking/collagen IV and βPS-integrin, the AdamTS-A metalloprotease anchors neural lineages in place and preserves CNS structure in Drosophila.