Detecting apoptosis during the formation of polarized intestinal epithelium in organ culture.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H E Abud.
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The Cbl family of proteins act as E3 ubiquitin-protein ligases and have been associated with the down regulation of a variety of receptor tyrosine kinases. Cbl proteins associate with many different cell signalling molecules suggesting that they may have functions outside of the RING finger-mediated ubiquitin ligase activity. The Drosophila melanogaster cbl gene (D-cbl) encodes two splice forms (Oncogene 19 (2000) 3299). Here we report on the differential expression of these isoforms during Drosophila embryogenesis. Both isoforms are maternally expressed but the long isoform of D-cbl is also transiently expressed in the invaginating mesoderm and later is specifically expressed in neurons of the central nervous system (CNS). Cbl protein is shown to be localised to axons of the longitudinal connectives and commissures in the central nervous system.
The expression pattern of the murine A33 antigen has been defined during development using wholemount immunohistochemistry. Two temporally and spatially distinct sites of expression were identified: the inner cell mass of the blastocyst and the endoderm cell layer of the intestinal tract where expression is initiated at E14.5 in the hindgut and subsequently extends throughout the length of the intestine. The onset of mA33 antigen expression in the gut occurs at the beginning of an extensive phase of cell movement involved in the conversion of the endoderm cell layer to a single cell layer of polarized epithelium. Expression of mA33 antigen is then maintained into adulthood, where it is a definitive marker of intestinal epithelium.
The murine A33 antigen is emerging as a definitive marker of intestinal epithelial cells. Cloning and sequence determination of cDNAs encoding mA33 antigen predict a novel type 1 transmembrane protein of 298 amino acids, comprising an extracellular domain with two immunoglobulin-like domains, a single-span transmembrane domain, and a highly acidic cytoplasmic domain. On the basis of conservation of amino acid sequence and genomic structure, the mA33 antigen is a member of a growing subfamily within the immunoglobulin superfamily, which includes transmembrane proteins CTX/ChT1, CTM/CTH, and CAR. During embryonic development, mA33 antigen expression is first observed in the inner cell mass of blastocysts before implantation. Intestinal expression of mA33 antigen is initiated in the hindgut at E14.5 and increases steadily throughout late embryonic and postnatal life into adulthood. The protein is specifically expressed on the basolateral surfaces of intestinal epithelial cells of all lineages, independent of their position along the rostrocaudal and crypt-villus axes. Thus the mA33 antigen appears to be a novel marker for both proliferating and differentiating intestinal epithelial cells.
We have investigated the role of the mammalian Son of sevenless 1 (Sos1) protein in growth factor signaling in vivo by generating mice and cell lines that lacked the Sos1 protein. Homozygous null embryos were smaller than normal, died mid-gestation with cardiovascular and yolk sac defects, and their fibroblasts showed reduced mitogen-activated protein kinase activation in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF). An intercross of mice mutant for Sos1 and the EGF receptor (EGFR) demonstrated that a heterozygous mutation in Sos1 dominantly enhanced the phenotype of a weak allele of the EGFR allele (wa-2). These animals had distinctive eye defects that closely resembled those seen in mice that were null for the EGFR or its ligand, TGF alpha. Our findings provide the first demonstration of a functional requirement for Sos1 in growth factor signaling in vivo. They also show that the genetic test of enhancement of weak receptor allele by heterozygous mutation in one component represents a powerful tool for analyzing the ras pathway in mammals.
Telomerase is a multicomponent reverse transcriptase enzyme that adds DNA repeats to the ends of chromosomes using its RNA component as a template for synthesis. Telomerase activity is detected in the germline as well as the majority of tumors and immortal cell lines, and at low levels in several types of normal cells. We have cloned a human gene homologous to a protein from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Euplotes aediculatus that has reverse transcriptase motifs and is thought to be the catalytic subunit of telomerase in those species. This gene is present in the human genome as a single copy sequence with a dominant transcript of approximately 4 kb in a human colon cancer cell line, LIM1215. The cDNA sequence was determined using clones from a LIM1215 cDNA library and by RT-PCR, cRACE and 3'RACE on mRNA from the same source. We show that the gene is expressed in several normal tissues, telomerase-positive post-crisis (immortal) cell lines and various tumors but is not expressed in the majority of normal tissues analyzed, pre-crisis (non-immortal) cells and telomerase-negative immortal (ALT) cell lines. Multiple products were identified by RT-PCR using primers within the reverse transcriptase domain. Sequencing of these products suggests that they arise by alternative splicing. Strikingly, various tumors, cell lines and even normal tissues (colonic crypt and testis) showed considerable differences in the splicing patterns. Alternative splicing of the telomerase catalytic subunit transcript may be important for the regulation of telomerase activity and may give rise to proteins with different biochemical functions.
The biological consequences of constitutive fibroblast growth factor-4 (fgf-4) expression were investigated in chimeric embryos prepared between wild-type host embryos and murine ES cells transfected with a construct in which expression of the murine fgf-4 gene was directed by the phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK-1) promoter. The embryos exhibit abnormalities of the limbs and the anterior central nervous system (CNS). The limb phenotype comprised the induction of outgrowth along the lateral ridge between the definitive fore and hind limbs resembling the early phases of limb development. The CNS defects comprised a complete absence, or marked reduction in forebrain and midbrain structures and rudimentary or absent eye development. Constitutive expression of fgf-4 was also accompanied by ectopic expression of the sonic hedgehog (shh) and msx-1 genes in the lateral ridge. These findings indicate that FGF exhibits multiple activities in early development which include the ability to induce the expression of early markers of limb development in the lateral ridge.
The biological consequences of ectopic FGF-4 expression were examined in chimaeric mouse embryos prepared with ES cells constitutively expressing FGF-4. The embryos exhibit abnormalities of the limbs and the anterior central nervous system. The limb phenotype consisted of the induction of early phases of limb development along the lateral ridge between the definitive fore and hind limb buds, where normally no limb outgrowth takes place. This phenotype was examined further by the implantation of beads soaked in FGF into the flank of developing chick embryos. This resulted in the induction of complete supernumerary limbs containing skeletal structures. These results indicated that FGFs have the ability to induce the outgrowth of limbs in an ectopic site and implicate FGFs in the initiation of normal limb development.