Biomedical subjects

Julian Ng

Publications and source records attributed to Julian Ng.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Rho GTPases regulate axon growth through convergent and divergent signaling pathways.

Rho GTPases are essential regulators of cytoskeletal reorganization, but how they do so during neuronal morphogenesis in vivo is poorly understood. Here we show that the actin depolymerization factor cofilin is essential for axon growth in Drosophila neurons. Cofilin function in axon growth is inhibited by LIM kinase and activated by Slingshot phosphatase. Dephosphorylating cofilin appears to be the major function of Slingshot in regulating axon growth in vivo. Genetic data provide evidence that Rho or Rac/Cdc42, via effector kinases Rok or Pak, respectively, activate LIM kinase to inhibit axon growth. Importantly, Rac also activates a Pak-independent pathway that promotes axon growth, and different RacGEFs regulate these distinct pathways. These genetic analyses reveal convergent and divergent pathways from Rho GTPases to the cytoskeleton during axon growth in vivo and suggest that different developmental outcomes could be achieved by biases in pathway selection.

Actin Depolymerizing Factors↗

PubMed2003

Rac promotes epithelial cell rearrangement during tracheal tubulogenesis in Drosophila.

Cell rearrangement, accompanied by the rapid assembly and disassembly of cadherin-mediated cell adhesions, plays essential roles in epithelial morphogenesis. Various in vitro and cell culture studies on the small GTPase Rac have suggested it to be a key regulator of cell adhesion, but this notion needs to be verified in the context of embryonic development. We used the tracheal system of Drosophila to investigate the function of Rac in the epithelial cell rearrangement, with a special attention to its role in regulating epithelial cadherin activity. We found that a reduced Rac activity led to an expansion of cell junctions in the embryonic epidermis and tracheal epithelia, which was accompanied by an increase in the amount of Drosophila E-Cadherin-Catenin complexes by a post-transcriptional mechanism. Reduced Rac activity inhibited dynamic epithelial cell rearrangement. Hyperactivation of Rac, on the other hand, inhibited assembly of newly synthesized E-Cadherin into cell junctions and caused loss of tracheal cell adhesion, resulting in cell detachment from the epithelia. Thus, in the context of Drosophila tracheal development, Rac activity must be maintained at a level necessary to balance the assembly and disassembly of E-Cadherin at cell junctions. Together with its role in cell motility, Rac regulates plasticity of cell adhesion and thus ensures smooth remodeling of epithelial sheets into tubules.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

Rac function and regulation during Drosophila development.

Rac GTPases regulate the actin cytoskeleton to control changes in cell shape. To date, the analysis of Rac function during development has relied heavily on the use of dominant mutant isoforms. Here, we use loss-of-function mutations to show that the three Drosophila Rac genes, Rac1, Rac2 and Mtl, have overlapping functions in the control of epithelial morphogenesis, myoblast fusion, and axon growth and guidance. They are not required for the establishment of planar cell polarity, as had been suggested on the basis of studies using dominant mutant isoforms. The guanine nucleotide exchange factor, Trio, is essential for Rac function in axon growth and guidance, but not for epithelial morphogenesis or myoblast fusion. Different Rac activators thus act in different developmental processes. The specific cellular response to Rac activation may be determined more by the upstream activator than the specific Rac protein involved.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

Rac GTPases control axon growth, guidance and branching.

Growth, guidance and branching of axons are all essential processes for the precise wiring of the nervous system. Rho family GTPases transduce extracellular signals to regulate the actin cytoskeleton. In particular, Rac has been implicated in axon growth and guidance. Here we analyse the loss-of-function phenotypes of three Rac GTPases in Drosophila mushroom body neurons. We show that progressive loss of combined Rac1, Rac2 and Mtl activity leads first to defects in axon branching, then guidance, and finally growth. Expression of a Rac1 effector domain mutant that does not bind Pak rescues growth, partially rescues guidance, but does not rescue branching defects of Rac mutant neurons. Mosaic analysis reveals both cell autonomous and non-autonomous functions for Rac GTPases, the latter manifesting itself as a strong community effect in axon guidance and branching. These results demonstrate the central role of Rac GTPases in multiple aspects of axon development in vivo, and suggest that axon growth, guidance and branching could be controlled by differential activation of Rac signalling pathways.

Amino Acid Sequence↗