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Pten coordinates retinal neurogenesis by regulating Notch signalling.

ABSTRACT: Development of nervous tissue is a coordinated process of neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation and neuronal differentiation. Intracellular signalling events that regulate the balance between NPC proliferation and neuronal differentiation, therefore, determine the size and composition of nervous tissues. Here, we demonstrate that negative regulation of phosphoinosite 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt signalling by phosphatase tensin homologue (Pten) is essential for maintaining NPC population in mouse retina. We found that mouse retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) lacking the Pten gene complete neurogenesis earlier than their normal developmental schedule, resulting in their premature depletion in the mature retina. We further discover that Notch intracellular domain (NICD) fails to form transcription activator complex in Pten-deficient RPCs, and thereby unable to support RPC maintenance. Taken together, our results suggest that Pten plays a pivotal role in retinal neurogenesis by supporting Notch-driven RPC maintenance against neurogenic PI3K-Akt signalling.

SUBMITTER: Jo HS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3280546 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pten coordinates retinal neurogenesis by regulating Notch signalling.

Jo Hong Seok HS Kang Kyung Hwa KH Joe Cheol O CO Kim Jin Woo JW

The EMBO journal 20111206 4

Development of nervous tissue is a coordinated process of neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation and neuronal differentiation. Intracellular signalling events that regulate the balance between NPC proliferation and neuronal differentiation, therefore, determine the size and composition of nervous tissues. Here, we demonstrate that negative regulation of phosphoinosite 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt signalling by phosphatase tensin homologue (Pten) is essential for maintaining NPC population in mouse re ...[more]

PMID: 22258620

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Project description:Building the complex vertebrate nervous system involves the regulated production of neurons and glia while maintaining a progenitor cell population. Neurogenesis starts asynchronously in different regions of the embryo and occurs over a long period of time, allowing progenitor cells to be exposed to multiple extrinsic signals that regulate the production of different cell types. Notch-mediated cell-cell signalling is one of the mechanisms that maintain the progenitor pool, however, little is known about how the timing of Notch activation is related to the cell cycle and the distinct modes of cell division that generate neurons. An essential tool with which to investigate the role of Notch signalling on cell by cell basis is the development a faithful reporter of Notch activity.Here we present a novel reporter for Notch activity based on the promoter of the well characterised Notch target chick Hes5-1, coupled with multiple elements that confer instability, including a destabilized nuclear Venus fluorescent protein and the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of Hes5-1. We demonstrate that this reporter faithfully recapitulates the endogenous expression of Hes5-1 and that it robustly responds to Notch activation in the chick neural tube. Analysis of the patterns of Notch activity revealed by this reporter indicates that although Notch is most frequently activated prior to mitosis it can be activated at any time within the cell cycle. Notch active progenitors undergoing mitosis generate two daughters that both continue to experience Notch signalling. However, cells lacking Notch activity before and during mitosis generate daughters with dissimilar Notch activity profiles.A novel Notch reporter with multiple destabilisation elements provides a faithful read-out of endogenous Notch activity on a cell-by-cell basis, as neural progenitors progress through the cell cycle in the chick neural tube. Notch activity patterns in this cell population provide evidence for distinct Notch signalling dynamics underlying different cell division modes and for the involvement of random initiation of Notch signalling within the neuroepithelium. These findings highlight the importance of single-cell analysis in the study of the complexity of Notch activity and provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying cell fate decisions in neural progenitors.

Project description:BackgroundGrowth factors, such as EGF, activate the PI3K/Akt/mTORC1 signalling pathway, which regulates a distinct program of protein synthesis leading to cell growth. This pathway relies on mTORC1 sensing sufficient levels of intracellular amino acids, such as leucine, which are required for mTORC1 activation. However, it is currently unknown whether there is a direct link between these external growth signals and intracellular amino acid levels. In primary prostate cancer cells, intracellular leucine levels are regulated by L-type amino acid transporter 3 (LAT3/SLC43A1), and we therefore investigated whether LAT3 is regulated by growth factor signalling.MethodsTo investigate how PI3K/Akt signalling regulates leucine transport, prostate cancer cells were treated with different PI3K/Akt inhibitors, or stable knock down of LAT3 by shRNA, followed by analysis of leucine uptake, western blotting, immunofluorescent staining and proximity ligation assay.ResultsInhibition of PI3K/Akt signalling significantly reduced leucine transport in LNCaP and PC-3 human prostate cancer cell lines, while growth factor addition significantly increased leucine uptake. These effects appeared to be mediated by LAT3 transport, as LAT3 knockdown blocked leucine uptake, and was not rescued by growth factor activation or further inhibited by signalling pathway inhibition. We further demonstrated that EGF significantly increased LAT3 protein levels when Akt was phosphorylated, and that Akt and LAT3 co-localised on the plasma membrane in EGF-activated LNCaP cells. These effects were likely due to stabilisation of LAT3 protein levels on the plasma membrane, with EGF treatment preventing ubiquitin-mediated LAT3 degradation.ConclusionGrowth factor-activated PI3K/Akt signalling pathway regulates leucine transport through LAT3 in prostate cancer cell lines. These data support a direct link between growth factor and amino acid uptake, providing a mechanism by which the cells rapidly coordinate amino acid uptake for cell growth.

Project description:A complete account of the whole developmental process of neurogenesis involves understanding a number of complex underlying molecular processes. Among them, those that govern the crucial transition from proliferative (self-replicating) to neurogenic neural progenitor (NP) cells remain largely unknown. Due to its sequential rostro-caudal gradients of proliferation and neurogenesis, the prospective spinal cord of the chick embryo is a good experimental system to study this issue. We report that the NOTCH ligand DELTA-1 is expressed in scattered cycling NP cells in the prospective chick spinal cord preceding the onset of neurogenesis. These Delta-1-expressing progenitors are placed in between the proliferating caudal neural plate (stem zone) and the rostral neurogenic zone (NZ) where neurons are born. Thus, these Delta-1-expressing progenitors define a proliferation to neurogenesis transition zone (PNTZ). Gain and loss of function experiments carried by electroporation demonstrate that the expression of Delta-1 in individual progenitors of the PNTZ is necessary and sufficient to induce neuronal generation. The activation of NOTCH signalling by DELTA-1 in the adjacent progenitors inhibits neurogenesis and is required to maintain proliferation. However, rather than inducing cell cycle exit and neuronal differentiation by a typical lateral inhibition mechanism as in the NZ, DELTA-1/NOTCH signalling functions in a distinct manner in the PNTZ. Thus, the inhibition of NOTCH signalling arrests proliferation but it is not sufficient to elicit neuronal differentiation. Moreover, after the expression of Delta-1 PNTZ NP continue cycling and induce the expression of Tis21, a gene that is upregulated in neurogenic progenitors, before generating neurons. Together, these experiments unravel a novel function of DELTA-NOTCH signalling that regulates the transition from proliferation to neurogenesis in NP cells. We hypothesize that this novel function is evolutionary conserved.

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Pten coordinates retinal neurogenesis by regulating Notch signalling.

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Pten coordinates retinal neurogenesis by regulating Notch signalling.

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