Tissue-Specific Functions of fem-2/PP2c Phosphatase and fhod-1/formin During Caenorhabditis elegans Embryonic Morphogenesis

G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics

Osama Refai^1¹  Ryan B. Smit^1² 

[1] Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1, Canada^1;Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, State University of NY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210^2

关键词: C . elegans;    morphogenesis;    epidermis;    embryo;    formin;   

DOI  :  10.1534/g3.118.200274

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Genetics Society of America

【 摘 要 】

The cytoskeleton is the basic machinery that drives many morphogenetic events. Elongation of the C. elegans embryo from a spheroid into a long, thin larva initially results from actomyosin contractility, mainly in the lateral epidermal seam cells, while the corresponding dorsal and ventral epidermal cells play a more passive role. This is followed by a later elongation phase involving muscle contraction. Early elongation is mediated by parallel genetic pathways involving LET-502 /Rho kinase and MEL-11 /MYPT myosin phosphatase in one pathway and FEM-2 /PP2c phosphatase and PAK-1 /p21 activated kinase in another. While the LET-502 / MEL-11 pathway appears to act primarily in the lateral epidermis, here we show that FEM-2 can mediate early elongation when expressed in the dorsal and ventral epidermis. We also investigated the early elongation function of FHOD-1 , a member of the formin family of actin nucleators and bundlers. Previous work showed that FHOD-1 acts in the LET-502 / MEL-11 branch of the early elongation pathway as well as in muscle for sarcomere organization. Consistent with this, we found that lateral epidermal cell-specific expression of FHOD-1 is sufficient for elongation, and FHOD-1 effects on elongation appear to be independent of its role in muscle. Also, we found that fhod-1 encodes long and short isoforms that differ in the presence of a predicted coiled-coil domain. Based on tissue-specific expression constructions and an isoform-specific CRISPR allele, the two FHOD-1 isoforms show partially specialized epidermal or muscle function. Although fhod-1 shows only impenetrant elongation phenotypes, we were unable to detect redundancy with other C. elegans formin genes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY