role of spastin in apical domain control along the rhabdomere elongation in drosophila photoreceptorspastin在顶端的作用域控制在果蝇感光沿着感杆伸长.pdfVIP

Role of Spastin in Apical Domain Control along the Rhabdomere Elongation in Drosophila Photoreceptor Geng Chen, Garrett P. League, Sang-Chul Nam* Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, United States of America Abstract Background: Mutations in spastin are the most common cause of hereditary spastin paraplegia, a neurodegenerative disease. In this study, the role of spastin was examined in Drosophila photoreceptor development. Methodology/Principal Findings: The spastin mutation in developing pupal eyes causes a mild mislocalization of the apical membrane domain at the distal section, but the apical domain was dramatically reduced at the proximal section of the developing pupal eye. Since the rhabdomeres in developing pupal eyes grow from distal to proximal, this phenotype strongly suggests that spastin is required for apical domain maintenance during rhabdomere elongation. This role of spastin in apical domain modulation was further supported by spastin’s gain-of-function phenotype. Spastin overexpression in photoreceptors caused the expansion of the apical membrane domain from apical to basolateral in the developing photoreceptor. Although the localizations of the apical domain and adherens junctions (AJs) were severely expanded, there were no defects in cell polarity. Conclusions/Significance: These results strongly suggest that spastin is essential for apical domain biogenesis during rhabdomere elongation in Drosophila photoreceptor morphogenesis. Citation: Chen G, League GP, Nam S-C (2010) Role of Spastin in Apical Domain Control along the Rhabdomere Elongation in Drosophila Photoreceptor. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9480. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009480 Editor: Andreas Bergmann, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States of America Received January 22