TY - JOUR AB - Wound healing in plant tissues, consisting of rigid cell wall-encapsulated cells, represents a considerable challenge and occurs through largely unknown mechanisms distinct from those in animals. Owing to their inability to migrate, plant cells rely on targeted cell division and expansion to regenerate wounds. Strict coordination of these wound-induced responses is essential to ensure efficient, spatially restricted wound healing. Single-cell tracking by live imaging allowed us to gain mechanistic insight into the wound perception and coordination of wound responses after laser-based wounding in Arabidopsis root. We revealed a crucial contribution of the collapse of damaged cells in wound perception and detected an auxin increase specific to cells immediately adjacent to the wound. This localized auxin increase balances wound-induced cell expansion and restorative division rates in a dose-dependent manner, leading to tumorous overproliferation when the canonical TIR1 auxin signaling is disrupted. Auxin and wound-induced turgor pressure changes together also spatially define the activation of key components of regeneration, such as the transcription regulator ERF115. Our observations suggest that the wound signaling involves the sensing of collapse of damaged cells and a local auxin signaling activation to coordinate the downstream transcriptional responses in the immediate wound vicinity. AU - Hörmayer, Lukas AU - Montesinos López, Juan C AU - Marhavá, Petra AU - Benková, Eva AU - Yoshida, Saiko AU - Friml, Jiří ID - 8002 IS - 26 JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences SN - 0027-8424 TI - Wounding-induced changes in cellular pressure and localized auxin signalling spatially coordinate restorative divisions in roots VL - 117 ER - TY - THES AB - Proteins and their complex dynamic interactions regulate cellular mechanisms from sensing and transducing extracellular signals, to mediating genetic responses, and sustaining or changing cell morphology. To manipulate these protein-protein interactions (PPIs) that govern the behavior and fate of cells, synthetically constructed, genetically encoded tools provide the means to precisely target proteins of interest (POIs), and control their subcellular localization and activity in vitro and in vivo. Ideal synthetic tools react to an orthogonal cue, i.e. a trigger that does not activate any other endogenous process, thereby allowing manipulation of the POI alone. In optogenetics, naturally occurring photosensory domain from plants, algae and bacteria are re-purposed and genetically fused to POIs. Illumination with light of a specific wavelength triggers a conformational change that can mediate PPIs, such as dimerization or oligomerization. By using light as a trigger, these tools can be activated with high spatial and temporal precision, on subcellular and millisecond scales. Chemogenetic tools consist of protein domains that recognize and bind small molecules. By genetic fusion to POIs, these domains can mediate PPIs upon addition of their specific ligands, which are often synthetically designed to provide highly specific interactions and exhibit good bioavailability. Most optogenetic tools to mediate PPIs are based on well-studied photoreceptors responding to red, blue or near-UV light, leaving a striking gap in the green band of the visible light spectrum. Among both optogenetic and chemogenetic tools, there is an abundance of methods to induce PPIs, but tools to disrupt them require UV illumination, rely on covalent linkage and subsequent enzymatic cleavage or initially result in protein clustering of unknown stoichiometry. This work describes how the recently structurally and photochemically characterized green-light responsive cobalamin-binding domains (CBDs) from bacterial transcription factors were re-purposed to function as a green-light responsive optogenetic tool. In contrast to previously engineered optogenetic tools, CBDs do not induce PPI, but rather confer a PPI already upon expression, which can be rapidly disrupted by illumination. This was employed to mimic inhibition of constitutive activity of a growth factor receptor, and successfully implement for cell signalling in mammalian cells and in vivo to rescue development in zebrafish. This work further describes the development and application of a chemically induced de-dimerizer (CDD) based on a recently identified and structurally described bacterial oxyreductase. CDD forms a dimer upon expression in absence of its cofactor, the flavin derivative F420. Safety and of domain expression and ligand exposure are demonstrated in vitro and in vivo in zebrafish. The system is further applied to inhibit cell signalling output from a chimeric receptor upon F420 treatment. CBDs and CDD expand the repertoire of synthetic tools by providing novel mechanisms of mediating PPIs, and by recognizing previously not utilized cues. In the future, they can readily be combined with existing synthetic tools to functionally manipulate PPIs in vitro and in vivo. AU - Kainrath, Stephanie ID - 7680 TI - Synthetic tools for optogenetic and chemogenetic inhibition of cellular signals ER - TY - THES AB - The development of the human brain occurs through a tightly regulated series of dynamic and adaptive processes during prenatal and postnatal life. A disruption of this strictly orchestrated series of events can lead to a number of neurodevelopmental conditions, including Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). ASDs are a very common, etiologically and phenotypically heterogeneous group of disorders sharing the core symptoms of social interaction and communication deficits and restrictive and repetitive interests and behaviors. They are estimated to affect one in 59 individuals in the U.S. and, over the last three decades, mutations in more than a hundred genetic loci have been convincingly linked to ASD pathogenesis. Yet, for the vast majority of these ASD-risk genes their role during brain development and precise molecular function still remain elusive. De novo loss of function mutations in the ubiquitin ligase-encoding gene Cullin 3 (CUL3) lead to ASD. In the study described here, we used Cul3 mouse models to evaluate the consequences of Cul3 mutations in vivo. Our results show that Cul3 heterozygous knockout mice exhibit deficits in motor coordination as well as ASD-relevant social and cognitive impairments. Cul3+/-, Cul3+/fl Emx1-Cre and Cul3fl/fl Emx1-Cre mutant brains display cortical lamination abnormalities due to defective migration of post-mitotic excitatory neurons, as well as reduced numbers of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. In line with the observed abnormal cortical organization, Cul3 heterozygous deletion is associated with decreased spontaneous excitatory and inhibitory activity in the cortex. At the molecular level we show that Cul3 regulates cytoskeletal and adhesion protein abundance in the mouse embryonic cortex. Abnormal regulation of cytoskeletal proteins in Cul3 mutant neural cells results in atypical organization of the actin mesh at the cell leading edge. Of note, heterozygous deletion of Cul3 in adult mice does not induce the majority of the behavioral defects observed in constitutive Cul3 haploinsufficient animals, pointing to a critical time-window for Cul3 deficiency. In conclusion, our data indicate that Cul3 plays a critical role in the regulation of cytoskeletal proteins and neuronal migration. ASD-associated defects and behavioral abnormalities are primarily due to dosage sensitive Cul3 functions at early brain developmental stages. AU - Morandell, Jasmin ID - 8620 SN - 2663-337X TI - Illuminating the role of Cul3 in autism spectrum disorder pathogenesis ER - TY - THES AB - Mitochondria are sites of oxidative phosphorylation in eukaryotic cells. Oxidative phosphorylation operates by a chemiosmotic mechanism made possible by redox-driven proton pumping machines which establish a proton motive force across the inner mitochondrial membrane. This electrochemical proton gradient is used to drive ATP synthesis, which powers the majority of cellular processes such as protein synthesis, locomotion and signalling. In this thesis I investigate the structures and molecular mechanisms of two inner mitochondrial proton pumping enzymes, respiratory complex I and transhydrogenase. I present the first high-resolution structure of the full transhydrogenase from any species, and a significantly improved structure of complex I. Improving the resolution from 3.3 Å available previously to up to 2.3 Å in this thesis allowed us to model bound water molecules, crucial in the proton pumping mechanism. For both enzymes, up to five cryo-EM datasets with different substrates and inhibitors bound were solved to delineate the catalytic cycle and understand the proton pumping mechanism. In transhydrogenase, the proton channel is gated by reversible detachment of the NADP(H)-binding domain which opens the proton channel to the opposite sites of the membrane. In complex I, the proton channels are gated by reversible protonation of key glutamate and lysine residues and breaking of the water wire connecting the proton pumps with the quinone reduction site. The tight coupling between the redox and the proton pumping reactions in transhydrogenase is achieved by controlling the NADP(H) exchange which can only happen when the NADP(H)-binding domain interacts with the membrane domain. In complex I, coupling is achieved by cycling of the whole complex between the closed state, in which quinone can get reduced, and the open state, in which NADH can induce quinol ejection from the binding pocket. On the basis of these results I propose detailed mechanisms for catalytic cycles of transhydrogenase and complex I that are consistent with a large amount of previous work. In both enzymes, conformational and electrostatic mechanisms contribute to the overall catalytic process. Results presented here could be used for better understanding of the human pathologies arising from deficiencies of complex I or transhydrogenase and could be used to develop novel therapies. AU - Kampjut, Domen ID - 8340 SN - 2663-337X TI - Molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial redox-coupled proton pumping enzymes ER - TY - GEN AB - De novo loss of function mutations in the ubiquitin ligase-encoding gene Cullin3 (CUL3) lead to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we used Cul3 mouse models to evaluate the consequences of Cul3 mutations in vivo. Our results show that Cul3 haploinsufficient mice exhibit deficits in motor coordination as well as ASD-relevant social and cognitive impairments. Cul3 mutant brain displays cortical lamination abnormalities due to defective neuronal migration and reduced numbers of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. In line with the observed abnormal columnar organization, Cul3 haploinsufficiency is associated with decreased spontaneous excitatory and inhibitory activity in the cortex. At the molecular level, employing a quantitative proteomic approach, we show that Cul3 regulates cytoskeletal and adhesion protein abundance in mouse embryos. Abnormal regulation of cytoskeletal proteins in Cul3 mutant neuronal cells results in atypical organization of the actin mesh at the cell leading edge, likely causing the observed migration deficits. In contrast to these important functions early in development, Cul3 deficiency appears less relevant at adult stages. In fact, induction of Cul3 haploinsufficiency in adult mice does not result in the behavioral defects observed in constitutive Cul3 haploinsufficient animals. Taken together, our data indicate that Cul3 has a critical role in the regulation of cytoskeletal proteins and neuronal migration and that ASD-associated defects and behavioral abnormalities are primarily due to Cul3 functions at early developmental stages. AU - Morandell, Jasmin AU - Schwarz, Lena A AU - Basilico, Bernadette AU - Tasciyan, Saren AU - Nicolas, Armel AU - Sommer, Christoph M AU - Kreuzinger, Caroline AU - Knaus, Lisa AU - Dobler, Zoe AU - Cacci, Emanuele AU - Danzl, Johann G AU - Novarino, Gaia ID - 7800 T2 - bioRxiv TI - Cul3 regulates cytoskeleton protein homeostasis and cell migration during a critical window of brain development ER -