Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Notch pathway”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 649 records · Page 36Linked to original sources

Role of Deltex-1 as a transcriptional regulator downstream of the Notch receptor.

Intercellular signaling through the cell-surface receptor Notch plays important roles in a variety of developmental processes as well as in pathogenesis of some human cancers and genetic disorders. However, the mechanisms by which Notch signals are transduced into cells still remain elusive. Here we investigated the signaling mechanisms for Notch in the cell fate control of neural progenitor cells. We show that Deltex-1 (DTX1), a mammalian homolog of Drosophila Deltex, mediates a Notch signal to block differentiation of neural progenitor cells. We found that a significant fraction of DTX1 proteins were localized in the nucleus and physically interacted with the transcriptional coactivator p300. Through its binding to p300, DTX1 inhibited transcriptional activation by the neural-specific helix-loop-helix-type transcription factor MASH1, and this mechanism is likely responsible for the differentiation inhibition of neural progenitor cells. Our results further suggest that DTX1 regulates transcription independently of the previously characterized Notch signaling pathway involving RBP-J and HES1/HES5. Thus, DTX1 serves as an important signaling component downstream of Notch that regulates transcription in the nucleus.

Animals↗

lin-12 Notch functions in the adult nervous system of C. elegans.

BACKGROUND: Notch signaling pathways are conserved across species and traditionally have been implicated in cell fate determination during embryonic development. Notch signaling components are also expressed postdevelopmentally in the brains of adult mice and Drosophila. Recent studies suggest that Notch signaling may play a role in the physiological, rather than developmental, regulation of neurons. Here, we investigate a new non-developmental role for Caenorhabditis elegans lin-12 Notch signaling in neurons regulating the spontaneous reversal rate during locomotion. RESULTS: The spontaneous reversal rate of C. elegans during normal locomotion is constant. Both lin-12 gain and loss of function mutant animals had significantly increased reversal rates compared to wild type controls. These defects were caused by lin-12 activity, because the loss of function defect could be rescued by a wild type lin-12 transgene. Furthermore, overexpression of lin-12 recapitulated the gain-of-function defect. Increasing or decreasing lin-12 activity in the postdevelopmental adult animal was sufficient to rapidly and reversibly increase reversals, thereby excluding a developmental role for lin-12. Although lin-12 is expressed in the vulval and somatic gonad lineages, we find that these tissues play no role in regulating reversal rates. In contrast, altering lin-12 activity specifically in the nervous system was sufficient to increase reversals. These behavioral changes require components of the canonical lin-12 signaling cascade, including the ligand lag-2 and the transcriptional effector lag-1. Finally, the C. elegans AMPA/kainate glutamate receptor homolog glr-1 shows strong genetic interactions with lin-12, suggesting that glr-1 and/or other glutamate gated channels may be targets of lin-12 regulation. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate a neuronal role for lin-12 Notch in C. elegans and suggest that lin-12 acutely regulates neuronal physiology to modulate animal behavior, without altering neuronal cell fate specification or neurite outgrowth. This is consistent with a role for Notch signaling in neurological disease with late onset symptoms.

Animals↗

Notch signal transduction induces a novel profile of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus gene expression.

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) RTA transcription factor is recruited to its responsive elements through interaction with RBP-Jkappa that is a downstream transcription factor of the Notch signaling pathway that is important in development and cell fate determination. This suggests that KSHV RTA mimics cellular Notch signal transduction to activate viral lytic gene expression. Here, I demonstrated that unlike other B lymphoma cells, KSHV-infected primary effusion lymphoma BCBL1 cells displayed the constitutive activation of ligand-mediated Notch signal transduction, evidenced by the Jagged ligand expression and the complete proteolytic process of Notch receptor I. In order to investigate the effect of Notch signal transduction on KSHV gene expression, human Notch intracellular (hNIC) domain that constitutively activates RBP-Jkappa transcription factor activity was expressed in BCBL1 cells, TRExBCBL1-hNIC, in a tetracycline inducible manner. Gene expression profiling showed that like RTA, hNIC robustly induced expression of a number of viral genes including K5 immune modulatory gene resulting in downregulation of MHC I and CD54 surface expression. Finally, the genetic analysis of KSHV genome demonstrated that the hNIC-mediated expression of K5 during viral latency consequently conferred the downregulation of MHC I and CD54 surface expression. These results indicate that cellular Notch signal transduction provides a novel expression profiling of KSHV immune deregulatory gene that consequently confers the escape of host immune surveillance during viral latency.

Antigens, Surface↗

Altered gene expression during rat Wolffian duct development in response to in utero exposure to the antiandrogen linuron.

Linuron is an herbicide with weak androgen receptor (AR) antagonist activity. Exposure to linuron from gestation days (GD) 12 to 21 perturbs androgen-dependent male reproductive development. In utero exposure to 50-mg/kg/day linuron induces malformations of the epididymis and the vas deferens. The objective of this study was to identify alterations in gene expression within the testis and epididymis associated with abnormal Wolffian duct development and to correlate changes in gene expression with the gross morphology of the affected epididymides. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were administered either corn oil vehicle or linuron (50 mg/kg/day) by gavage from GD 12 to 21 (n = 3-6 controls, n = 5-10 linuron-treated dams per time point). Changes in gene expression were evaluated in testes on GD 21 and in epididymides on GD 21 and postnatal day (PND) 7, using cDNA microarrays and confirmed by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses. RNA was isolated from intact epididymides with reduced or no ductal coiling from the linuron groups, and epididymides with noncontiguous ducts were excluded. In the fetal testis, exposure to linuron did not result in reduced mRNA expression of the AR or that of several steroidogenic enzymes, supporting the hypothesis that linuron does not reduce fetal testosterone production. Linuron induced a significant decrease in AR mRNA expression in GD 21 epididymides. Significant changes in mRNA expression in GD 21 and PND 7 epididymides were also identified in the epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and Notch signaling pathways. These pathways are involved in tissue morphogenesis. Changes in the expression of AR and IGF-1 receptors were detected by immunostaining in malformed epididymides from linuron-exposed rats. Linuron induced changes in epididymal gene expression suggestive of altered paracrine interactions between the mesenchyme and epithelial cells during development. The EGF, Notch, IGF-1, BMP4, and FGF signaling pathways may be involved in normal testosterone-mediated development of the Wolffian duct.

Animals↗

Identification of a novel activation domain in the Notch-responsive transcription factor CSL.

CSL is the primary target of the Notch signaling pathway in mammalian cells. It is a DNA binding protein that generally represses transcription in the absence of Notch signaling and activates transcription upon formation of a ternary complex with NICD, the protease-generated intracellular domain of NOTCH: Previous mapping experiments identified the central third of CSL as both necessary and sufficient for DNA binding and activation by NOTCH: Here we show that CSL promotes transcription in 293T cells in the absence of added NICD and that this activity requires both the central domain plus the C-terminal third of the protein. Evidence is presented that argues against a contribution of endogenous NICD and instead supports the possibility that distinct coactivators may directly stimulate the activity of CSL in a cell type-specific manner. This conclusion supports a recent finding that Drosophila CSL (Suppressor of Hairless) can also mediate transcriptional activation in the absence of NOTCH:

3T3 Cells↗

Delta-1 activation of notch-1 signaling results in HES-1 transactivation.

The Notch receptor is involved in many cell fate determination events in vertebrates and invertebrates. It has been shown in Drosophila melanogaster that Delta-dependent Notch signaling activates the transcription factor Suppressor of Hairless, leading to an increased expression of the Enhancer of Split genes. Genetic evidence has also implicated the kuzbanian gene, which encodes a disintegrin metalloprotease, in the Notch signaling pathway. By using a two-cell coculture assay, we show here that vertebrate Dl-1 activates the Notch-1 cascade. Consistent with previous data obtained with active forms of Notch-1 a HES-1-derived promoter construct is transactivated in cells expressing Notch-1 in response to Dl-1 stimulation. Impairing the proteolytic maturation of the full-length receptor leads to a decrease in HES-1 transactivation, further supporting the hypothesis that only mature processed Notch is expressed at the cell surface and activated by its ligand. Furthermore, we observed that Dl-1-induced HES-1 transactivation was dependent both on Kuzbanian and RBP-J activities, consistent with the involvement of these two proteins in Notch signaling in Drosophila. We also observed that exposure of Notch-1-expressing cells to Dl-1 results in an increased level of endogenous HES-1 mRNA. Finally, coculture of Dl-1-expressing cells with myogenic C2 cells suppresses differentiation of C2 cells into myotubes, as previously demonstrated for Jagged-1 and Jagged-2, and also leads to an increased level of endogenous HES-1 mRNA. Thus, Dl-1 behaves as a functional ligand for Notch-1 and has the same ability to suppress cell differentiation as the Jagged proteins do.

Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins↗

Notch1 signaling influences v2 interneuron and motor neuron development in the spinal cord.

The Notch signaling pathway plays a variety of roles in cell fate decisions during development. Previous studies have shown that reduced Notch signaling results in premature differentiation of neural progenitor cells, while increased Notch activities promote apoptotic death of neural progenitor cells in the developing brain. Whether Notch signaling is involved in the specification of neuronal subtypes is unclear. Here we examine the role of Notch1 in the development of neuronal subtypes in the spinal cord using conditional knockout (cKO) mice lacking Notch1 specifically in neural progenitor cells. Notch1 inactivation results in accelerated neuronal differentiation in the ventral spinal cord and gradual disappearance of the ventral central canal. These changes are accompanied by reduced expression of Hes1 and Hes5 and increased expression of Mash1 and Neurogenin 1 and 2. Using markers (Nkx2.2, Nkx6.1, Olig2, Pax6 and Dbx1) for one or multiple progenitor cell types, we found reductions of all subtypes of progenitor cells in the ventral spinal cord of Notch1 cKO mice. Similarly, using markers (Islet1/2, Lim3, Sim1, Chox10, En1 and Evx1/2) specific for motor neurons and distinct classes of interneurons, we found increases in the number of V0-2 interneurons in the ventral spinal cord of Notch1 cKO mice. Specifically, the number of Lim3+/Chox10+ V2 interneurons is markedly increased while the number of Lim3+/Islet+motor neurons is decreased in the Notch1 cKO spinal cord, suggesting that V2 interneurons are generated at the expense of motor neurons in the absence of Notch1. These results provide support for a role of Notch1 in neuronal subtype specification in the ventral spinal cord.

Animals↗

Drosophila presenilin is required for neuronal differentiation and affects notch subcellular localization and signaling.

Presenilins are a highly conserved family of proteins first identified as causative genes in early onset familial Alzheimer's disease. Recent studies have suggested a role for presenilins in the Notch-signaling pathway, but their specific function within this pathway remains unclear. Here, we have characterized the Drosophila presenilin gene and protein and studied their interaction with Notch in both mutants and transgenics. We find that the Drosophila presenilin protein is proteolytically cleaved and broadly expressed during development with the highest levels in neurons within the larval CNS. We also show that mutations in Drosophila presenilin (Dps) genetically interact with Notch and result in an early pupal-lethal phenotype characterized by defects in eye and wing development and incomplete neuronal differentiation within the larval CNS. Moreover, we find that processing of Notch in the Golgi by the furin protease is unaffected in Dps mutants and that Notch is present and may even accumulate on the plasma membrane of neuroblasts in the larval CNS of Dps mutants. In contrast, overexpression of Dps in transgenics causes Notch to accumulate in the cytoplasm. Taken together, these results indicate that Drosophila presenilin is required for proper neuronal differentiation and may regulate the subcellular localization of Notch proteins within cells, necessary for their accumulation and subsequent signaling capabilities.

Animals↗

The Notch ligand, Delta-1, reduces TNF-alpha-induced growth suppression and apoptosis by decreasing activation of caspases in U937 cells.

The Notch signaling pathway plays an important role in the regulation of self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha induces apoptosis through activation of caspase pathway. A monoblastic leukemia cell line, U937, undergoes apoptosis following stimulation with TNF-alpha. We found that Notch activation induced by a recombinant Notch ligand, Delta-1, reduced the TNF-alpha-induced growth suppression and apoptosis in U937 cells. As the molecular mechanism involved, we showed Delta-1 stimulation partially suppressed the sequential activation of caspase-8, caspase-3, and, PARP induced by TNF-alpha. The TNF-alpha-induced activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), p38, and NF-kappaB was not affected by Delta-1 stimulation. The cells needed to be exposed to Delta-1 prior to TNF-alpha stimulation to reduce the suppressive effect of TNF-alpha. Therefore, we thought that Delta-1 stimulation might reduce the expression of TNF-receptor (R) 1 and proteins to modulate the activation of caspases such as FLIP and XIAP. However, Delta-1 stimulation did not affect their expression. The precise mechanism by which Notch signaling suppresses caspase activation has yet to be determined. This is the first report to show the relationship between Notch activation and TNF-R1 signaling. The findings suggest possible mechanisms by which Notch activation supports cell survival.

Apoptosis↗

Notch and affinity boundaries in Drosophila.

Cells in multicellular organisms often do not intermingle freely with each other. Differential cell affinities can contribute to organizing cells into different tissues. Drosophila limbs and the vertebrate central nervous system are subdivided into compartments. Cells in adjacent compartments do not mix. Cell interactions mediated by Notch-family receptors have been implicated in the specification of these compartment boundaries. Two recent reports analyze the role of the Notch signaling pathway in the generation of an affinity boundary in the Drosophila wing. The first report analyzes the connection between Notch and the actin cytoskeleton. The second report analyzes the differential requirements of Notch and the transcription factor Suppressor of Hairless in generating the affinity boundary.

Actins↗

Soluble form of Jagged1: unique product of epithelial keratinocytes and a regulator of keratinocyte differentiation.

Notch signaling pathway is an important regulator of epithelial differentiation. Recent studies have characterized multiple ligands, including Jagged1, as mediators of Notch signaling. In this work, an alternatively spliced transcript of Jagged1 was isolated in yeast two-hybrid screening through interaction with thrombospondin-1. This transcript, devoid of sequences encoding the transmembrane and intracellular domains of Jagged1, was specific for keratinocytes. Furthermore, the truncated Jagged1 polypeptide devoid of the intracellular domain was detected prominently in the suprabasal keratinocyte layer in neonatal epithelia. The soluble form of Jagged1, when expressed as a tagged polypeptide was efficiently secreted into the culture medium and the N-terminal signal sequence became cleaved off upon secretion. Direct contact between a cell presenting the transmembrane form of Jagged1 and a Notch-expressing cell has been proposed as a prerequisite for the signaling event. However, the soluble form of Jagged1, when present in the cell culture medium, was sufficient to induce keratinocyte differentiation. These observations suggest a novel mechanism of how Jagged1 can target cells beyond the direct cell-cell contact in developing epithelia.

Alternative Splicing↗

Delta-Notch signaling and lateral inhibition in zebrafish spinal cord development.

BACKGROUND: Vertebrate neural development requires precise coordination of cell proliferation and cell specification to guide orderly transition of mitotically active precursor cells into different types of post-mitotic neurons and glia. Lateral inhibition, mediated by the Delta-Notch signaling pathway, may provide a mechanism to regulate proliferation and specification in the vertebrate nervous system. We examined delta and notch gene expression in zebrafish embryos and tested the role of lateral inhibition in spinal cord patterning by ablating cells and genetically disrupting Delta-Notch signaling. RESULTS: Zebrafish embryos express multiple delta and notch genes throughout the developing nervous system. All or most proliferative precursors appeared to express notch genes whereas subsets of precursors and post-mitotic neurons expressed delta genes. When we ablated identified primary motor neurons soon after they were born, they were replaced, indicating that specified neurons laterally inhibit neighboring precursors. Mutation of a delta gene caused precursor cells of the trunk neural tube to cease dividing prematurely and develop as neurons. Additionally, mutant embryos had excess early specified neurons, with fates appropriate for their normal positions within the neural tube, and a concomitant deficit of late specified cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are consistent with the idea that zebrafish Delta proteins, expressed by newly specified neurons, promote Notch activity in neighboring precursors. This signaling is required to maintain a proliferative precursor population and generate late-born neurons and glia. Thus, Delta-Notch signaling may diversify vertebrate neural cell fates by coordinating cell cycle control and cell specification.

Animals↗

Fate determination of neural crest cells by NOTCH-mediated lateral inhibition and asymmetrical cell division during gangliogenesis.

Avian trunk neural crest cells give rise to a variety of cell types including neurons and satellite glial cells in peripheral ganglia. It is widely assumed that crest cell fate is regulated by environmental cues from surrounding embryonic tissues. However, it is not clear how such environmental cues could cause both neurons and glial cells to differentiate from crest-derived precursors in the same ganglionic locations. To elucidate this issue, we have examined expression and function of components of the NOTCH signaling pathway in early crest cells and in avian dorsal root ganglia. We have found that Delta1, which encodes a NOTCH ligand, is expressed in early crest-derived neuronal cells, and that NOTCH1 activation in crest cells prevents neuronal differentiation and permits glial differentiation in vitro. We also found that NUMB, a NOTCH antagonist, is asymmetrically segregated when some undifferentiated crest-derived cells in nascent dorsal root ganglia undergo mitosis. We conclude that neuron-glia fate determination of crest cells is regulated, at least in part, by NOTCH-mediated lateral inhibition among crest-derived cells, and by asymmetric cell division.

Animals↗

The Abruptex domain of Notch regulates negative interactions between Notch, its ligands and Fringe.

The Notch signalling pathway regulates cell fate choices during both vertebrate and invertebrate development. In the Drosophila wing disc, the activation of Notch by its ligands Delta and Serrate is required to make the dorsoventral boundary, where several genes, such as wingless and cut, are expressed in a 2- to 4-cell-wide domain. The interactions between Notch and its ligands are modulated by Fringe via a mechanism that may involve post-transcriptional modifications of Notch. The ligands themselves also help to restrict Notch activity to the dorsoventral boundary cells, because they antagonise the activation of the receptor in the cells where their expression is high. This function of the ligands is critical to establish the polarity of signalling, but very little is known about the mechanisms involved in the interactions between Notch and its ligands that result in suppression of Notch activity. The extracellular domain of Notch contains an array of 36 EGF repeats, two of which, repeats 11 and 12, are necessary for direct interactions between Notch with Delta and Serrate. We investigate here the function of a region of the Notch extracellular domain where several missense mutations, called Abruptex, are localised. These Notch alleles are characterised by phenotypes opposite to the loss of Notch function and also by complex complementation patterns. We find that, in Abruptex mutant discs, only the negative effects of the ligands and Fringe are affected, resulting in the failure to restrict the expression of cut and wingless to the dorsoventral boundary. We suggest that Abruptex alleles identify a domain in the Notch protein that mediates the interactions between Notch, its ligands and Fringe that result in suppression of Notch activity.

Animals↗

Notch/Delta4 interaction in human embryonic liver CD34+ CD38- cells: positive influence on BFU-E production and LTC-IC potential maintenance.

We investigated whether Notch signaling pathways have a role in human developmental hematopoiesis. In situ histochemistry analysis revealed that Notch1, 2, and 4 and Notch ligand (Delta1-4, and Jagged1) proteins were not expressed in the yolk sac blood islands, the para-aortic splanchnopleure, the hematopoietic aortic clusters, and at the early stages of embryonic liver hematopoiesis. Notch1-2, and Delta4 were eventually detected in the embryonic liver, from 34 until 38 days postconception. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis showed that first-trimester embryonic liver CD34(+)CD38(low) cells expressed both Notch1 and Notch2. When these cells were cultured on S17 stroma stably expressing Delta4, a 2.6-fold increase in BFU-E number was observed at day 7, as compared with cultures with control stroma, and this effect was maintained for 2 weeks. Importantly, exposure of these cells to Delta4 under these conditions maintained the original frequency and quality of long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-ICs), while control cultures quickly resulted in the extinction of this LTC-IC potential. Furthermore, short-term exposure of embryonic liver adherent cells to erythropoietin resulted in a dose-dependent increase in Delta4 expression, almost doubling the expression observed with untreated stroma. This suggests that Delta4 has a role in the regulation of hematopoiesis after a hypoxic stress in the fetus.

ADP-ribosyl Cyclase 1↗

A garden of Notch-ly delights.

Over the past decade, the Notch signaling pathway has been shown to be crucially important for normal metazoan development and to be associated with several human inherited and late onset diseases. The realization that altered Notch signaling contributes at various levels to human disease lead in May to the first meeting dedicated solely to Notch signaling in vertebrate development and disease in Madrid, Spain. Hosted by the Cantoblanco Workshops on Biology and organized by Tom Gridley, José Luis de la Pompa and Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, the meeting covered diverse aspects of this important signaling pathway.

Animals↗

Evolutionary analysis of vertebrate Notch genes.

We have conducted an evolutionary analysis of Notch genes of the vertebrates Danio rerio and Mus musculus to examine the expansion and diversification of the Notch family during vertebrate evolution. The existence of multiple Notch genes in vertebrate genomes suggests that the increase in Notch signaling pathways may be necessary for the additional complexity observed in the vertebrate body plan. However, orthology relationships within the vertebrate Notch family indicate that biological functions are not fixed within orthologous groups. Phylogenetic reconstruction of the vertebrate Notch family suggests that the zebrafish notch1a and 1b genes resulted from a duplication occurring around the time of the teleost/mammalian divergence. There is also evidence that the mouse Notch4 gene is the result of a rapid divergence from a Notch3-like gene. Investigation of the ankyrin repeat region sequences showed there to be little evidence for gene conversion events between repeat units. However, relationships between repeats 2-5 suggest that these repeats are the result of a tandem duplication of a dual repeat unit. Selective pressure on maintenance of ankyrin repeat sequences indicated by relationships between the repeats suggests that specific repeats are responsible for particular biological activities, a finding consistent with mutational studies of the Caenorhabditis elegans gene glp-1. Sequence similarities between the ankyrin repeats and the region immediately C-terminal of the repeats further suggests that this region may be involved in the modulation of ankyrin repeat function.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Protective effects of transcription factor HESR1 on retinal vasculature.

HESR1 is a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors regulated by the Notch signaling pathway in vertebrate and Drosophila embryos, and is related to the HES/Hairy/E (sp1) family. HESR1 is a downstream target of Notch in endothelial cells and could be an effector of Notch signaling in these cells. HESR1 is necessary for the induction of a tubular network and for continued maintenance of mature and quiescent blood vessels. To examine the role of HESR1 in retinal neovascularization, we transfected retinal vascular endothelial cells (HRCECs) with the HESR1 gene and studied its effects on the expression of angiogenic factors, on the proliferation and migration of endothelial cells, and on the formation of tube-like structures (TLSs). Overexpression of HESR1 downregulated VEGFR-2 expression, upregulated occludin expression, inhibited the migration and proliferation of HRCECs, and inhibited the formation of TLSs. Thus, HESR1 plays a key role in the finely tuned network of molecules involved in the regulation of retinal vascular homeostasis. HESR1 seems to inhibit the vessel-promoting effects of VEGF, shift endothelial cells from a proliferative state to a quiescent state, and restore normal vessel structures. Expression of the HESR1 gene in retinal vascular endothelial cells may protect retinal blood vessels and may be useful in the treatment of diseases involving damage to the retinal vasculature, including diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and retinal vein occlusion.

Adult↗