Desmoglein 2 mutant mice develop cardiac fibrosis and dilation

Desmosomes are cell–cell adhesion sites and part of the intercalated discs, which couple adjacent cardiomyocytes. The connection is formed by the extracellular domains of desmosomal cadherins that are also linked to the cytoskeleton on the cytoplasmic side. To examine the contribution of the desmosomal cadherin desmoglein 2 to cardiomyocyte adhesion and cardiac function, mutant mice were prepared lacking a part of the extracellular adhesive domain of desmoglein 2. Most live born mutant mice presented normal overall cardiac morphology at 2 weeks. Some animals, however, displayed extensive fibrotic lesions. Later on, mutants developed ventricular dilation leading to cardiac insufficiency and eventually premature death. Upon histological examination, cardiomyocyte death by calcifying necrosis and replacement by fibrous tissue were observed. Fibrotic lesions were highly proliferative in 2-week-old mutants, whereas the fibrotic lesions of older mutants showed little proliferation indicating the completion of local muscle replacement by scar tissue. Disease progression correlated with increased mRNA expression of c-myc, ANF, BNF, CTGF and GDF15, which are markers for cardiac stress, remodeling and heart failure. Taken together, the desmoglein 2-mutant mice display features of dilative cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, an inherited human heart disease with pronounced fibrosis and ventricular arrhythmias that has been linked to mutations in desmosomal proteins including desmoglein 2

The desmosome and pemphigus

Desmosomes are patch-like intercellular adhering junctions (“maculae adherentes”), which, in concert with the related adherens junctions, provide the mechanical strength to intercellular adhesion. Therefore, it is not surprising that desmosomes are abundant in tissues subjected to significant mechanical stress such as stratified epithelia and myocardium. Desmosomal adhesion is based on the Ca2+-dependent, homo- and heterophilic transinteraction of cadherin-type adhesion molecules. Desmosomal cadherins are anchored to the intermediate filament cytoskeleton by adaptor proteins of the armadillo and plakin families. Desmosomes are dynamic structures subjected to regulation and are therefore targets of signalling pathways, which control their molecular composition and adhesive properties. Moreover, evidence is emerging that desmosomal components themselves take part in outside-in signalling under physiologic and pathologic conditions. Disturbed desmosomal adhesion contributes to the pathogenesis of a number of diseases such as pemphigus, which is caused by autoantibodies against desmosomal cadherins. Beside pemphigus, desmosome-associated diseases are caused by other mechanisms such as genetic defects or bacterial toxins. Because most of these diseases affect the skin, desmosomes are interesting not only for cell biologists who are inspired by their complex structure and molecular composition, but also for clinical physicians who are confronted with patients suffering from severe blistering skin diseases such as pemphigus. To develop disease-specific therapeutic approaches, more insights into the molecular composition and regulation of desmosomes are required

Metabolic resilience is encoded in genome plasticity

Metabolism plays a central role in evolution, as resource conservation is a selective pressure for fitness and survival.Resource-driven adaptations offer a good model to study evolutionary innovation more broadly. It remains unknown howresource-driven optimization of genome function integrates chromatin architecture with transcriptional phase transitions.Here we show that tuning of genome architecture and heterotypic transcriptional condensates mediate resilience tonutrient limitation. Network genomic integration of phenotypic, structural, and functional relationships reveals that fattissue promotes organismal adaptations through metabolic acceleration chromatin domains and heterotypic PGC1Acondensates. We find evolutionary adaptations in several dimensions; low conservation of amino acid residues withinprotein disorder regions, nonrandom chromatin location of metabolic acceleration domains, condensate-chromatin stabilitythrough cis-regulatory anchoring and encoding of genome plasticity in radial chromatin organization. We show thatenvironmental tuning of these adaptations leads to fasting endurance, through efficient nuclear compartmentalization oflipid metabolic regions, and, locally, human-specific burst kinetics of lipid cycling genes. This process reduces oxidativestress, and fatty-acid mediated cellular acidification, enabling endurance of condensate chromatin conformations.Comparative genomics of genetic and diet perturbations reveal mammalian convergence of phenotype and structuralrelationships, along with loss of transcriptional control by diet-induced obesity. Further, we find that radial transcriptionalorganization is encoded in functional divergence of metabolic disease variant-hubs, heterotypic condensate composition,and protein residues sensing metabolic variation. During fuel restriction, these features license the formation of largeheterotypic condensates that buffer proton excess, and shift viscoelasticity for condensate endurance. This mechanismmaintains physiological pH, reduces pH-resilient inflammatory gene programs, and enables genome plasticity throughtranscriptionally driven cell-specific chromatin contacts. In vivo manipulation of this circuit promotes fasting-likeadaptations with heterotypic nuclear compartments, metabolic and cell-specific homeostasis. In sum, we uncover here ageneral principle by which transcription uses environmental fluctuations for genome function, and demonstrate howresource conservation optimizes transcriptional self-organization through robust feedback integrators, highlighting obesityas an inhibitor of genome plasticity relevant for many diseases