Catastrophic disassembly of actin filaments via Mical-mediated oxidation.

Actin filament assembly and disassembly are vital for cell functions. MICAL Redox enzymes are important post-translational effectors of actin that stereo-specifically oxidize actin's M44 and M47 residues to induce cellular F-actin disassembly. Here we show that Mical-oxidized (Mox) actin can undergo extremely fast (84 subunits/s) disassembly, which depends on F-actin's nucleotide-bound state. Using near-atomic resolution cryoEM reconstruction and single filament TIRF microscopy we identify two dynamic and structural states of Mox-actin. Modeling actin's D-loop region based on our 3.9 Å cryoEM reconstruction suggests that oxidation by Mical reorients the side chain of M44 and induces a new intermolecular interaction of actin residue M47 (M47-O-T351). Site-directed mutagenesis reveals that this interaction promotes Mox-actin instability. Moreover, we find that Mical oxidation of actin allows for cofilin-mediated severing even in the presence of inorganic phosphate. Thus, in conjunction with cofilin, Mical oxidation of actin promotes F-actin disassembly independent of the nucleotide-bound state

Guidance Receptor Degradation Is Required for Neuronal Connectivity in the Drosophila Nervous System

During Drosophila brain development, a neuron-specific endolysosomal degradation pathway provides a mechanism for continuous guidance receptor turnover and proper connectivity

Custom Integrated Circuits

Contains table of contents for Part III, table of contents for Section 1 and reports on eleven research projects.IBM CorporationMIT School of EngineeringNational Science Foundation Grant MIP 94-23221Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Army Intelligence Center Contract DABT63-94-C-0053Mitsubishi CorporationNational Science Foundation Young Investigator Award Fellowship MIP 92-58376Joint Industry Program on Offshore Structure AnalysisAnalog DevicesDefense Advanced Research Projects AgencyCadence Design SystemsMAFET ConsortiumConsortium for Superconducting ElectronicsNational Defense Science and Engineering Graduate FellowshipDigital Equipment CorporationMIT Lincoln LaboratorySemiconductor Research CorporationMultiuniversity Research IntiativeNational Science Foundatio

MICAL redox enzymes and actin remodeling: New links to classical tumorigenic and cancer pathways

MICAL Redox enzymes have recently emerged as direct regulators of cell shape and motility – working through specific reversible post-translational oxidation of actin to disassemble and remodel the cytoskeleton. Links are also now emerging between MICALs and cancer, including our recent results that regulation of MICAL sensitizes cancer cells to the cancer drug Gleevec. Targeting this new actin regulatory enzyme system may thus provide new therapeutic options for cancer treatment

Data presenting a modified bacterial expression vector for expressing and purifying Nus solubility-tagged proteins

Bacteria are the predominant source for producing recombinant proteins but while many exogenous proteins are expressed, only a fraction of those are soluble. We have found that a new actin regulatory enzyme Mical is poorly soluble when expressed in bacteria but the use of a Nus fusion protein tag greatly increases its solubility. However, available vectors containing a Nus tag have been engineered in a way that hinders the separation of target proteins from the Nus tag during protein purification. We have now used recombinant DNA approaches to overcome these issues and reengineer a Nus solubility tag-containing bacterial expression vector. The data herein present a modified bacterial expression vector useful for expressing proteins fused to the Nus solubility tag and separating such target proteins from the Nus tag during protein purification. Keywords: Mical, Plexin, Semaphorin, Repulsion, Axon guidance, Redo

Actin Filaments—A Target for Redox Regulation

Actin and its ability to polymerize into dynamic filaments is critical for the form and function of cells throughout the body. While multiple proteins have been characterized as affecting actin dynamics through noncovalent means, actin and its protein regulators are also susceptible to covalent modifications of their amino acid residues. In this regard, oxidation-reduction (Redox) intermediates have emerged as key modulators of the actin cytoskeleton with multiple different effects on cellular form and function. Here, we review work implicating Redox intermediates in posttranslationally altering actin and discuss what is known regarding how these alterations affect the properties of actin. We also focus on two of the best characterized enzymatic sources of these Redox intermediates—the NADPH oxidase NOX and the flavoprotein monooxygenase MICAL—and detail how they have both been identified as altering actin, but share little similarity and employ different means to regulate actin dynamics. Finally, we discuss the role of these enzymes and redox signaling in regulating the actin cytoskeleton in vivo and highlight their importance for neuronal formand function in health and disease.This work was funded by CONICYT doctoral fellowship 21120221 to CW and by Fondecyt 1140325 and FONDAP 15150012 grants to CG-B and NIH (NS073968) and Welch Foundation (I-1749) grants to JRT

The Glucose Transporter (GLUT4) Enhancer Factor Is Required for Normal Wing Positioning in Drosophila

Many of the transcription factors and target genes that pattern the developing adult remain unknown. In the present study, we find that an ortholog of the poorly understood transcription factor, glucose transporter (GLUT4) enhancer factor (Glut4EF, GEF) [also known as the Huntington's disease gene regulatory region-binding protein (HDBP) 1], plays a critical role in specifying normal wing positioning in adult Drosophila. Glut4EF proteins are zinc-finger transcription factors named for their ability to regulate expression of GLUT4 but nothing is known of Glut4EF's in vivo physiological functions. Here, we identify a family of Glut4EF proteins that are well conserved from Drosophila to humans and find that mutations in Drosophila Glut4EF underlie the wing-positioning defects seen in stretch mutants. In addition, our results indicate that previously uncharacterized mutations in Glut4EF are present in at least 11 publicly available fly lines and on the widely used TM3 balancer chromosome. These results indicate that previous observations utilizing these common stocks may be complicated by the presence of Glut4EF mutations. For example, our results indicate that Glut4EF mutations are also present on the same chromosome as two gain-of-function mutations of the homeobox transcription factor Antennapedia (Antp) and underlie defects previously attributed to Antp. In fact, our results support a role for Glut4EF in the modulation of morphogenetic processes mediated by Antp, further highlighting the importance of Glut4EF transcription factors in patterning and morphogenesis