Biomedical subjects

Toshifumi Fukuda

Publications and source records attributed to Toshifumi Fukuda.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Targeted mutation of serine 697 in the Ret tyrosine kinase causes migration defect of enteric neural crest cells.

The RET receptor tyrosine kinase plays a critical role in the development of the enteric nervous system (ENS) and the kidney. Upon glial-cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) stimulation, RET can activate a variety of intracellular signals, including the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT, and RAC1/JUN NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK) pathways. We recently demonstrated that the RAC1/JNK pathway is regulated by serine phosphorylation at the juxtamembrane region of RET in a cAMP-dependent manner. To determine the importance of cAMP-dependent modification of the RET signal in vivo, we generated mutant mice in which serine residue 697, a putative protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation site, was replaced with alanine (designated S697A mice). Homozygous S697A mutant mice lacked the ENS in the distal colon, resulting from a migration defect of enteric neural crest cells (ENCCs). In vitro organ culture showed an impaired chemoattractant response of the mutant ENCCs to GDNF. JNK activation by GDNF but not ERK, AKT and SRC activation was markedly reduced in neurons derived from the mutant mice. The JNK inhibitor SP600125 and the PKA inhibitor KT5720 suppressed migration of the ENCCs in cultured guts from wild-type mice to comparable degrees. Thus, these findings indicated that cAMP-dependent modification of RET function regulates the JNK signaling responsible for proper migration of the ENCCs in the developing gut.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

A novel mitochondrial ubiquitin ligase plays a critical role in mitochondrial dynamics.

In this study, we have identified a novel mitochondrial ubiquitin ligase, designated MITOL, which is localized in the mitochondrial outer membrane. MITOL possesses a Plant Homeo-Domain (PHD) motif responsible for E3 ubiquitin ligase activity and predicted four-transmembrane domains. MITOL displayed a rapid degradation by autoubiquitination activity in a PHD-dependent manner. HeLa cells stably expressing a MITOL mutant lacking ubiquitin ligase activity or MITOL-deficient cells by small interfering RNA showed an aberrant mitochondrial morphology such as fragmentation, suggesting the enhancement of mitochondrial fission by MITOL dysfunction. Indeed, a dominant-negative expression of Drp1 mutant blocked mitochondrial fragmentation induced by MITOL depletion. We found that MITOL associated with and ubiquitinated mitochondrial fission protein hFis1 and Drp1. Pulse-chase experiment showed that MITOL overexpression increased turnover of these fission proteins. In addition, overexpression phenotype of hFis1 could be reverted by MITOL co-overexpression. Our finding indicates that MITOL plays a critical role in mitochondrial dynamics through the control of mitochondrial fission proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2006

Dok-4 regulates GDNF-dependent neurite outgrowth through downstream activation of Rap1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase.

During development of the central and peripheral nervous systems, neurite extension mediated via glial-cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and its receptor RET is critical for neuronal differentiation. In the present study, we investigated the role of the RET substrate Dok-4 in neurite outgrowth induced by the GDNF/RET signaling pathway. In TGW neuroblastoma cells, which endogenously express both RET and Dok-4, depletion of Dok-4 through treatment with small interfering RNA resulted in a marked decrease in GDNF-stimulated neurite outgrowth. By contrast, exogenous expression of wild-type Dok-4 induced sustained p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK1/2) activation and enhanced neurite outgrowth. Expression of Dok-4 mutants in which the tyrosine residues at codons 187, 220 and 270, conserved between Dok-4, -5, and -6, were each replaced with a phenylalanine inhibited sustained ERK1/2 activation and neurite outgrowth. We also found that Dok-4 induced a significant activation of the small G protein Rap1 and that expression of a dominant active Rap1 mutant restored neurite outgrowth in Dok-4-depleted cells. By contrast, expression of a dominant negative Rap1 mutant impaired GDNF-stimulated neurite outgrowth from TGW cells. Finally, we found that neurite formation in cultured rat hippocampal neurons was enhanced by the expression of Dok-4. Together, our results suggest that Dok-4, through activation of the Rap1-ERK1/2 pathway, regulates GDNF-mediated neurite outgrowth during neuronal development.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

PubMed2005

Activation of c-Jun amino-terminal kinase by GDNF induces G2/M cell cycle delay linked with actin reorganization.

It is well known that the cell cycle is controlled by several cyclin/cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) complexes whose expression and phosphorylation states vary with orderly periodicity. During the cell cycle, activity of the cyclin/Cdk complexes can be regulated directly or indirectly by a number of molecules, including protein kinases and phosphatases, p53, and Cdk inhibitors. Here, we show that the addition of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) induced G2/M cell cycle delay in human SK-N-MC neuroectodermal tumor cells that express RET tyrosine kinase, accompanying actin reorganization. Cell cycle delay at G2/M was characterized by accelerated and prolonged Cdc2 phosphorylation and stabilization of cyclin B1 and Wee1 kinase expression. Interestingly, we found that phosphorylation and/or expression of Cdc2, cyclinB1, and Wee1 was controlled by the Rac1/c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway. Immunohistochemical analysis suggested that the G2/M cell cycle delay may be necessary to prevent the mitotic progression of SK-N-MC cells with perturbed actin cytoskeletons.

Actins↗

PubMed2005

Functional conservation between fission yeast moc1/sds23 and its two orthologs, budding yeast SDS23 and SDS24, and phenotypic differences in their disruptants.

The moc1/sds23 gene was isolated to induce sexual development of a sterile strain due to overexpression of adenylate cyclase in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Here, we studied the functional conservation between moc1/sds23 and its two orthologs SDS23 and SDS24 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We observed that the temperature sensitivity, salt tolerance, cell morphology, and sterility of the Deltamoc1 mutant in S. pombe were recovered by expressing either S. cerevisiae SDS23 or SDS24. We found that deletion of both SDS23 and SDS24 resulted in the production of a large vacuole that was reversed by the expression of S. pombe moc1/sds23. In these ways we found that S. pombe Moc1/Sds23 and S. cerevisiae SDS23p or SDS24p are functional homologs. In addition we found that the Deltasds23 Deltasds24 diploid strain reduces cell separation in forming pseudohyphal-like growth in S. cerevisiae. Thus S. pombe moc1/sds23 and S. cerevisiae SDS23 or SDS24 are interchangeable with each other, but their disruptants are phenotypically dissimilar.

Cell Cycle Proteins↗

PubMed2004

A targeting mutation of tyrosine 1062 in Ret causes a marked decrease of enteric neurons and renal hypoplasia.

The Ret receptor tyrosine kinase plays a crucial role in the development of the enteric nervous system and the kidney. Tyrosine 1062 in Ret represents a binding site for the phosphotyrosine-binding domains of several adaptor and effector proteins that are important for the activation of intracellular signaling pathways, such as the RAS/ERK, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT, and Jun-associated N-terminal kinase pathways. To investigate the importance of tyrosine 1062 for organogenesis in vivo, knock-in mice in which tyrosine 1062 in Ret was replaced with phenylalanine were generated. Although homozygous knock-in mice were born normally, they died by day 27 after birth and showed growth retardation. The development of the enteric nervous system was severely impaired in homozygous mutant mice, about 40% of which lacked enteric neurons in the whole intestinal tract, as observed in Ret-deficient mice. The rest of the mutant mice developed enteric neurons in the intestine to various extents, although the size and number of ganglion cells were significantly reduced. Unlike Ret-deficient mice, a small kidney developed in all knock-in mice, accompanying a slight histological change. The reduction of kidney size was due to a decrease of ureteric bud branching during embryogenesis. Thus, these findings demonstrated that the signal via tyrosine 1062 plays an important role in histogenesis of the enteric nervous system and nephrogenesis.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗

PubMed2002

Novel mechanism of regulation of Rac activity and lamellipodia formation by RET tyrosine kinase.

Rac activation in neuronal cells plays an important role in lamellipodia formation that is a critical event for neuritogenesis. It is well known that the Rac activity is regulated via activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) by a variety of receptor tyrosine kinases. Here we show that increased serine phosphorylation on RET receptor tyrosine kinase following cAMP elevation promotes lamellipodia formation of neuronal cells induced by glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). We identified serine 696 in RET as a putative phosphorylation site by protein kinase A and found that mutation of this serine almost completely inhibited lamellipodia formation by GDNF without affecting activation of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Mutation of tyrosine 1062 in RET, whose phosphorylation is crucial for activation of PI3K, also inhibited lamellipodia formation by GDNF. Inhibition of lamellipodia formation by mutation of either serine 696 or tyrosine 1062 was associated with decrease of the Rac1-guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity, suggesting that this activity is regulated by two different signaling pathways via serine 696 and tyrosine 1062 in RET. Moreover, in the presence of serine 696 mutation, lamellipodia formation was rescued by replacing tyrosine 687 with phenylalanine. These findings propose a novel mechanism that receptor tyrosine kinase modulates actin dynamics in neuronal cells via its cAMP-dependent phosphorylation.

Cyclic AMP↗

PubMed2002

Role for O-glycosylation of RFP in the interaction with enhancer of polycomb.

We recently demonstrated that RFP, which belongs to the large B-box RING finger protein family, interacts with Enhancer of Polycomb 1 (EPC1) and functions as a transcriptional repressor in human cultured cells. In this study, we examined the expression of RFP and EPC1 in mouse tissues by immunoblotting as well as their interaction by a pull-down assay. Both RFP and EPC1 proteins are expressed in several mouse tissues including testis, spleen, thymus, adrenal gland, cerebrum, and cerebellum. In addition, they were coprecipitated from the lysate of mouse testis. Pull-down assays using glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fused EPC1 proteins revealed that RFP is associated with the EPcA, EPcB, and carboxy-terminal (CT) regions of EPC1. Although RFP is highly expressed as 58- and 68-kDa proteins in mouse testis, the EPC1 CT region more strongly interacted with the 68-kDa form than the EPcA or EPcB region. Interaction of the 58-kDa form of RFP with each region was weak compared with that of the 68-kDa form with the EPC1 CT region. Because the 68-kDa form of RFP was almost completely digested with O-glycosidase but not with N-glycosidase, this suggested that O-glycosylation of RFP plays a role in its interaction with the EPC1 CT region that may be responsible for transcriptional repression. In addition, the luciferase reporter gene assay showed that expression of the EPcA region strongly impairs the transcriptional repressive activity of RFP.

Adrenal Glands↗