|
Advertisement | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 12, 8100-8109, March 24, 2006
Expression Profiling of a Hypercontraction-induced Myopathy in Drosophila Suggests a Compensatory Cytoskeletal Remodeling Response*
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
In a large scale screen for TS2 behavioral mutants in Drosophila, we identified dominant mutations in Mhc that lead to hypercontraction and degeneration of the adult indirect flight muscles (5). The Mhc locus encodes the muscle-specific motor that mediates contraction of sarcomeres in Drosophila muscles. The hypercontraction defects are caused by single amino acid substitutions in the ATP-binding/hydrolysis domain of myosin heavy chain (MHC), leading to unregulated contraction cycles that occur independently of calcium influx. In addition to muscle hypercontraction and degeneration, Mhc mutants display abnormal TS behavior at restrictive temperatures, reflected in an acute loss of motor coordination and walking ability at 38 °C. Most surprisingly, we found that TS-induced behavioral dysfunction was a common feature of all Drosophila hypercontraction muscle mutants assayed, in contrast to muscle mutants that lead to hypocontraction (5). These shared behavioral defects suggest that hypercontracted muscles have fundamentally different electrical properties than hypocontracted and normal muscles, resulting in TS dysfunction at elevated temperatures. Because hypercontraction may represent a common mechanism for muscle damage, as observed during cardiac reperfusion injury (6), determining the long term cellular consequences that occur during states of prolonged muscle hypercontraction is critical.
In response to altered activity of the contractile machinery in cardiomyopathy, cardiac cells undergo a transcriptional response that includes up-regulation of fetal cardiac genes and immune response genes, and down-regulation of nuclear encoded mitochondrial genes and calcium handling proteins (7-13). The underlying signaling pathway mediating transcriptional recoding is thought to involve a calcineurin-dependent signaling cascade, leading to deacetylation of histones and activation of genes that are normally expressed at low levels in adult tissue (14-16). To further characterize the transcriptional profile in hypercontracted muscles, we have completed a genome-wide expression analysis of Drosophila Mhc hypercontraction-induced myopathy mutants utilizing high density oligonucleotide DNA microarrays. The transcriptional response to hypercontraction-induced myopathy includes an up-regulation of many known and putative actin-binding proteins that are differentially expressed in muscle, suggesting an actin remodeling response in damaged tissue. The characterization of these novel transcripts may identify conserved molecular response mechanisms to muscle dysfunction and could potentially reveal novel targets for therapeutic treatment of muscle diseases.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Tissue Processing for MicroarraysTissue was derived from 3- to 4-day-old adult male flies of the indicated genotype raised at 25 °C. Flies were frozen in liquid nitrogen and vortexed in order to obtain isolated heads and bodies (wings and legs were discarded). Circadian differences were minimized by processing tissue between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. A total of eight independent microarrays were analyzed (four control, two MhcS1/+, and two MhcS2/+). Total RNA was isolated using TRIzol (Invitrogen). 7-12 flies were processed in 200 µl of TRIzol. Five batches (1 ml) of processed tissue were then used to isolate the total RNA. From the total RNA, mRNA was isolated using a Qiagen Oligotex mRNA extraction kit. cDNA was created with random hexamer and T7-poly(T) oligonucleotides using the cDNA kit from Invitrogen. cDNA was then purified by phenol/chloroform extraction and Phase Lock Gel extraction tubes (Eppendorf) as suggested by Affymetrix®. Biotin-labeled cRNA was made with the Enzo High Yield Bioarray kit using the supplied protocol with the modification of running half-reaction mixes. Reactions were cleaned with the Qiagen RNeasy kit, precipitated overnight, and resuspended into 13 µl of diethyl pyrocarbonate-treated double distilled H2O. Fragmentation was done with fragmentation buffer (200 mM Tris acetate, pH 8.1, 500 mM KOAc, 150 mM MgOAc) at 94 °C for 35 min and then brought up into 33 µl total volume. cRNA was sent to the Affymetrix® processing lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for hybridization and signal detection.
Expression AnalysisStatistical analysis was done with the Affymetrix® Microarray Suite software using the following normalization values: scaling target, 1500; alpha1, 0.04; alpha2, 0.06; tau, 0.015; gamma1L, 0.0025; gamma1H, 0.0025; gamma2L, 0.0030; gamma2H, 0.0030; and perturbation, 1.1. Gene changes were called based upon the stringency criteria that differential regulation must be reported by Affymetrix software for at least 75% of the pairwise comparisons. Additionally, an analysis utilizing SAM version120 was done in order to provide an independent analysis of the normalized data, giving higher stringency in differential regulation hits. Analysis with SAM was done as two-class, unpaired data sets, setting
to
25% false-positive rate.
Semi-quantitative RT-PCRSemi-quantitative RT-PCR was utilized to verify select genes from the microarray analysis. PCR primers were designed to sequences used in the design of probe pairs by Affymetrix. Isolated cDNA was diluted into the equivalent amount isolated from 1 µg of total RNA per 1 µl. This solution was further diluted 1:100, and 0.1 to 1 µl was used in the reactions depending upon transcript abundance and primer efficiency. Reaction samples were taken from cycles 21 to 30 in order to determine linear regions of the reactions. If linear regions were overlapping, comparisons were made in those cycles. If linear regions were not overlapping, reactions were run until mutant reactions were within linear cycles.
In Situ AnalysisIn situ expression analysis was performed using standard procedures. Probes were designed to
200-bp fragments, amplified by PCR using a 3' primer that includes the T7 sequence. Sequences used for in situ hybridization coincide to sequences used by Affymetrix for probe pair design. In most cases, the same sequence used for semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used for in situ analysis.
ImmunostainingImmunostaining of third instar larval fillets was done as described previously (5). For detecting MSP-300, we utilized
-MSP-300 antisera at 1:500 (17). Secondary goat
-rabbit conjugated to Cy2 was used at 1:500 (The Jackson Laboratories). F-actin was labeled with Texas Red-conjugated phalloidin at 1:500, incubated simultaneously with secondary antibody (Molecular Probes). Antisera to dARC1 was kindly provided by Leslie Griffith and used at 1:1000.
|
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
A total of eight independent arrays were performed as follows: four CantonS, two MhcS1/+, and two MhcS2/+. For experiments, we used circadian-matched CantonS males of identical age and rearing conditions as controls. For each chip used in our analysis, we isolated RNA from the heads and bodies of 50 animals to reduce individual variability in gene expression. The data were processed using the Affymetrix statistical expression algorithm in a total of 16 pairwise comparisons between mutant and wild type arrays (Fig. 2, A and B). To analyze the mutant chips as a group against the controls, SAM version 1.20 analysis was performed using the two-class unpaired response type (Fig. 2C) (19). To increase the chances of making relevant gene change calls, we set stringent conditions to analyze the data. For a gene to be differentially regulated, it must have been labeled up- or down-regulated by the Affymetrix algorithm in 75% of the pairwise comparisons. To further rank the results, we subdivided the data into the following two categories: 1) differentially regulated in 75% of all pairwise comparisons, and 2) differentially regulated in only one of the two mutants. We then analyzed statistical overlap between genes identified by the Affymetrix statistical expression algorithm and the SAM analysis. Using these criteria, 228 genes were up-regulated and 118 were down-regulated in response to hypercontraction-induced myopathy (Table 1 and supplemental Tables S1 and S2).
|
|
To categorize genes that were transcriptionally altered in dystrophic muscles, we performed a BLAST analysis for each transcript to identify known homologs and previously characterized structural domains. The genes were then categorized according to known or putative functions based on current literature or sequence similarity (see Table 2 and supplemental Tables S1 and S2). Overall, the most striking gene set identified in the microarray analysis was the up-regulation of genes known or predicted to be involved in muscle structure and function at the level of the actin cytoskeleton, suggesting a remodeling of the cytoskeleton or its structural support in response to hypercontraction (Fig. 3; Table 2). Of the 10 most up-regulated genes across all statistical analyses, 6 fall within this category. Differentially regulated transcripts included in this category are Mlp60A, Mlp84B, Kettin, MSP-300, flw, sqh, capulet, slingshot, act88F, act57B, Mbs, and talin. Mlp60A, Mlp84B, Kettin, MSP-300, flw, capulet, and talin have all been shown to provide or modulate structural supports of the muscle cytoskeleton (20-25), suggesting that hypercontraction and subsequent degeneration trigger a transcriptional response that may remodel the muscle cytoskeleton. Such a response may represent a functionally beneficial compensation mechanism by which the muscle responds to increased forces induced by hypercontraction.
|
|
In addition to the potential muscle remodeling response, we observed an up-regulation of immune response genes as has been observed in mammalian muscular dystrophy models (26). The largest class of down-regulated transcripts in dystrophic muscles consists of nuclear encoded mitochondrial genes and genes involved in energy and metabolism, suggesting metabolic dysfunction in damaged muscles. An additional down-regulated transcript of interest encodes the calcium pump responsible for transporting calcium back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum, Ca-P60A (11). This down-regulation may be responsible for potential Ca2+ homeostasis defects in Mhc flight muscles. Indeed, our previous analysis suggested that intracellular Ca2+ is dysregulated in Mhc mutant fibers, as larval body wall muscles exhibit spontaneous contraction cycles even in the absence of external Ca2+ (5).
A subset of the genes that were identified as differentially regulated in our hypercontraction-induced myopathy model have been implicated previously in activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in mammals. These include the Drosophila homologs of the mammalian proteins ARC (CG12505 and CG13941), neurochondrin/norbin (CG2330), and CPG2 (Msp-300) (29-32). These activity-regulated genes are thought to modulate actin dynamics to strengthen activated synapses during plasticity (29, 31), suggesting similar actin-dependent cytoskeletal rearrangements may occur during muscle remodeling.
A Subset of Novel Differentially Regulated Genes Is Expressed in Somatic MusculatureMost of the genes identified in our analysis as differentially regulated in dystrophic muscles are largely uncharacterized. To determine whether these genes may be important for muscle function, we analyzed the expression patterns of several novel genes encoding proteins with domain structures suggestive of a role in actin biology. These included CG32030 (CG5797 and CG5775) (dFHOS), CG12505 (dARC1), CG2330 (dNeurochondrin), CG2471 (dSCLP), CG6972 and CG9025 (dFEM-1). As performing in situ hybridization to adult tissues is technically difficult, we chose to examine the expression pattern of the transcripts in whole mount embryos where we could follow gene expression during myogenesis, as well as in differentiated embryonic muscles. Although we expect these patterns of expression to reflect the adult musculature, further analysis will be required to confirm tissue-specific expression of the transcripts in adults.
CG5797 and CG5775, encoding the 5' and 3' regions of the CG32030 locus (hereafter referred to as dFHOS), represented the third highest up-regulated transcript (7-fold) identified in the microarray screen. The locus encodes an FH1- and FH2-domain containing protein with armadillo repeats in the N terminus. This gene is the Drosophila homolog of FHOS, a human "formin-homology containing protein overexpressed in the spleen" (33). Recent evidence has shown that formin-containing proteins regulate polymerization of nonbranched actin filaments (34, 35), suggesting dFHOS may function in assembly of the muscle sarcomere. In situ analysis with dFHOS probes reveals strong somatic muscle expression and staining in the putative midline mesectodermal cells (Fig. 4B).
dARC1 is one of three Drosophila homologs (CG12505, CG13941, and CG10102) of the mammalian activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated ARC gene and the most highly up-regulated transcript identified in our analysis. In situ hybridization with dARC1 probes reveal a broad staining pattern, with differential expression in both somatic and visceral musculature (Fig. 4C). Additionally, higher expression is observed in the central nervous system. Most interestingly, the central nervous system expression pattern is localized to synaptic regions of the ventral ganglion. In the mammalian central nervous system, ARC mRNA is trafficked to activated synapses and locally translated in the dendrites (36). The localization of dARC1 mRNA to synaptic regions, together with our previous identification of dARC1 as a seizure-induced gene in Drosophila (37), suggests ARC function may be conserved in synaptic plasticity. In addition, the identification of dARC1 expression in somatic muscle, together with its dramatic up-regulation in Mhc mutants, suggests dARC1 may also play a previously unrecognized role in muscular dystrophy.
Mammalian neurochondrin was isolated as an up-regulated transcript in neurons that have undergone tetraethylammonium-induced long term potentiation. Subsequent studies have revealed that neurochondrin overexpression in Neuro2a cells induces neurite outgrowth (31). The Drosophila homolog, dNeurochondrin (CG2330), is strongly up-regulated in Mhc mutants and shows expression in both somatic and visceral musculature (Fig. 4D), suggesting it functions in muscles in Drosophila.
dSCLP, a leucine-rich repeat-containing protein, is a homolog of SCLP, a gene originally identified in Manduca as an up-regulated transcript in skeletal muscle cells undergoing programmed cell death (38). dSCLP is up-regulated in Mhc mutants, and in situ probes show strong expression in the mesoderm (Fig. 4E), suggesting its primary function resides in muscles. CG6972 is an armadillo repeat protein also up-regulated in Mhc mutants. Expression analysis reveals RNA localization only in somatic musculature (Fig. 4F), again suggesting a function in muscle. FEM-1 was identified as an ankyrin repeat protein important in sex determination via programmed cell death in Caenorhabditis elegans (39). dFEM-1 RNA localization was primarily detected in the central nervous system (Fig. 4G), suggesting it may represent a class of transcripts that are up-regulated in non-muscle cells in response to muscle degeneration. With the exception of dFEM-1, the somatic muscle expression of these genes occurs during late mesodermal differentiation, turning on around stage 13 of embryogenesis, when the body wall myoblasts begin to fuse and form the body wall musculature, suggesting these genes are more likely to be involved with the structure or function of muscle cells, rather than the specification and determination of mesodermal derivatives (Fig. 4). In summary, five of six novel genes we selected for in situ analysis were expressed in muscles, suggesting many upregulated transcripts in Mhc hypercontraction mutants likely represent transcriptional recoding in damaged muscles.
Muscle Remodeling May Occur on the Actin Cytoskeleton or at Key Structural SitesTo characterize the role of differential gene regulation in muscle dysfunction, it is important to identify the possible sites of action where the proteins may act within the muscle. To begin this analysis, we characterized the immunolocalization of MSP-300, the Drosophila nesprin (20, 32). As reported previously, localization of MSP-300 was found in four distinct subcellular compartments in control larval body wall muscles, including the Z-line, the muscle attachment sites, the nucleus, and at putative attachment sites between muscles 6 and 7 (Fig. 5, A-D). The localization of MSP-300 was not altered in the Mhc mutant background (Fig. 5, E-G), indicating up-regulation of MSP-30 targets the protein to its normal subcellular compartments, as opposed to novel sites. We next assayed whether the product of the most up-regulated gene, dARC1, also localizes to the muscle cytoskeleton. To examine dARC1 targeting, we generated transgenic flies expressing dARC1 fused to the N terminus of GFP, or nontagged dARC1, under the UAS/GAL4 expression system. Antisera generated to dARC1 demonstrated that dARC1 associated with larval body wall sarcomeres when overexpressed in muscle, co-localizing with the myosin-rich thick filament (Fig. 6, A-C). The GFP-tagged dARC1 protein did not fold correctly when overexpressed alone, but when co-expressed with untagged dARC1, dARC1-GFP localized to similar structures in muscle (Fig. 6D), confirming the antisera localization. Co-expression of the proteins in the central nervous system revealed GFP fluorescence at synapses as well (Fig. 6, E-H), consistent with localization studies in mammals (29, 40). dARC1 localization suggests the protein likely functions in synapses and muscle sarcomeres, where it may modulate MHC function or localization at thick filaments.
|
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
A remodeling response in Mhc mutants is suggested by the up-regulation of genes that act at the level of the actin cytoskeleton. Specifically, Mlp60A, Mlp84B, Kettin, MSP-300, flw, sqh, capulet, slingshot, act88F, act57B, Mbs, and talin have been documented previously to function in muscle cytoskeleton assembly or stabilization (20-25). In addition to genetic evidence, localization studies support a localized remodeling response. The muscle LIM protein Mlp84B accumulates at muscle attachment sites and Z-lines (27). The protein encoded by flap wing is important for the integrity of muscle attachment sites and the organization of the Z-lines in the indirect flight muscles (22). Drosophila Kettin (titin) is required for both myoblast fusion and the structural integrity of the sarcomere, with immunolocalization to Z-lines (23, 41, 42). Likewise, we find that the protein products of MSP-300 and dARC1,two of the most up-regulated genes identified in our screen, also localize to specific sites in the sarcomere. MSP-300 is enriched in the actin-rich thin filament, whereas dARC1 localizes to the myosin-rich thick filament. Cytoskeletal remodeling may represent a functionally beneficial compensation mechanism. The up-regulation of sqh supports a compensatory effect. In wild type animals, sqh normally acts as a regulatory light chain of the non-muscle type II myosin, zipper (43). sqh up-regulation may alter the overall activity and force output of the muscle by changing the properties of the contractile machinery. In contrast, the down-regulation of fln may reflect a deleterious alteration in transcription. Loss-of-function mutations in fln lead to sarcomeric instability and defects in thick filament assembly (25). Besides the increased forces produced by mutant MHC, decreasing fln transcription may lead to further destabilization of the thick filament structure.
|
|
An additional component of the expression profile is the up-regulation of a subset of genes that have been isolated in mammalian systems as activity-regulated transcripts in the nervous system, including dARC1, dNeurochondrin, and MSP-300. In addition to conservation of protein sequence homology across evolution, transcriptional modulation has also been conserved for these genes, indicating this regulation is likely critical for their function. The mammalian homologs (ARC, neurochondrin/norbin, and CPG2) are up-regulated in response to synaptic activity and are thought to modulate morphological properties of mammalian synapses (29-31, 36, 44-47). Activity-dependent synaptic modification is dependent upon Ca2+ signals through N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors at synapses (48). Potentially, Ca2+-dependent signaling in muscular dystrophies and cardiomyopathies may impinge upon an endogenous activity-dependent transcriptional response used to remodel actin-dependent synaptic structures during neuronal plasticity. It will be of interest to determine whether additional uncharacterized transcripts encoding cytoskeletal regulators identified in our screen are also activity-regulated in neurons.
The transcriptional response to hypercontraction-induced myopathy in Drosophila suggests a conserved cellular response to muscle dysfunction from flies to humans. For both skeletal and cardiac dysfunction, dysregulation of intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis has been suggested to be important for pathogenesis and altered transcriptional regulation (15, 49-52). In mammalian cardiomyopathies, differential gene regulation has focused on the activation of fetal protein isoforms involved in cardiac function (14, 53). Similar responses were observed in Drosophila hypercontraction mutants. The up-regulated muscle LIM proteins, for example, have peak expressions at the terminal stages of muscle development in the embryo and pupa (21). In addition, the strongly up-regulated Act57B is the predominant actin for larval somatic musculature, not adult muscles (54). Expression analysis of muscular dystrophies has also revealed a down-regulation of nuclear encoded mitochondrial genes (26, 55-57), similar to our observations in Drosophila. As is the case in vertebrate muscular dystrophies, Drosophila hypercontraction mutants exhibit an up-regulation of immune response genes. In Duchenne muscular dystrophy, this response is thought to reflect infiltration of degrading muscle tissue by activated dendritic cells, as immunohistochemical analysis of muscle biopsies show increases in dendritic cell infiltration into the muscle (26). Known and putative metabolic genes form the majority of down-regulated genes (77 of 118), many of which are known or predicted to function in the mitochondria. A similar response occurs in Duchenne and Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (55-57), suggesting a metabolic crisis in myopathic flight muscles similar to muscular dystrophies. The parallels found in Drosophila to human muscle diseases suggest that the cellular responses to genetic lesions that affect muscle function and lead to myopathic states may be conserved.
Many of the genes that we have identified as differentially regulated in response to hypercontraction are novel and have not been characterized. However, it seems likely that many will act within this muscle remodeling pathway. The domain structure and homology of these genes suggest they play roles in regulating or supporting the cytoskeleton. Furthermore, in situ hybridization experiments indicate that many are likely to be differentially expressed in muscle. Therefore, not only do the novel genes have sequences that indicate a role in cytoskeletal regulation and show similar regulatory patterns in response to myopathy, but they also are preferentially expressed in muscle. One of these genes, dFHOS, is a formin domain containing protein. Recent data have shown that formin domains form unbranched actin polymers in an ARP2/3-independent manner (34, 35), suggesting that dFHOS may function to polymerize unbranched actin filaments in the sarcomere. In addition to gene expression differences in dystrophic muscles, it is likely that the expression profiling will reveal compensation responses occurring in other tissues, including neurons. By using molecular genetic tools available in Drosophila, we can begin to understand the functional consequences of altered transcription in the context of muscle disease.
In summary, the expression profiling data indicate that hypercontraction in Mhc mutants leads to a specific transcriptional response that is similar to that of human muscular dystrophies and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. This response does not represent a reactivation of the entire developmental program of the mesoderm, as early mesodermal determinants are not up-regulated. Rather, the transcriptional response activates a program of genes that are required for the structure or function of muscle cells. Future studies will determine which differentially regulated genes contribute to dysfunction and which are involved in remodeling of damaged muscle tissue.
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
The online version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental Tables I and II. ![]()
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 46-3243, Cambridge, MA 02139. Tel.: 617-452-2605; Fax: 617-452-2249; E-mail: troy{at}mit.edu.
2 The abbreviations used are: TS, temperature-sensitive; ARC, activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein; SAM, significance analysis of microarrays; GFP, green fluorescent protein; RT, reverse transcription; d, Drosophila. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
-MSP-300 antisera; L. Griffith and M. Mattaliano for
-dARC1 antisera; I. Rebay for helpful discussions; and B. Adolfsen, A. Rodal, and M. Yoshihara for help in the progression of this project. | REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
K. A. Clark, J. M. Bland, and M. C. Beckerle The Drosophila muscle LIM protein, Mlp84B, cooperates with D-titin to maintain muscle structural integrity J. Cell Sci., June 15, 2007; 120(12): 2066 - 2077. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| All ASBMB Journals | Molecular and Cellular Proteomics |
| Journal of Lipid Research | ASBMB Today |