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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 283, Issue 21, 14845-14856, May 23, 2008
Mitotic Functions for SNAP45, a Subunit of the Small Nuclear RNA-activating Protein Complex SNAPc*
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| ABSTRACT |
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, localizes to centrosomes during parts of mitosis, as well as to the spindle midzone during anaphase and the mid-body during telophase. Consistent with localization to these mitotic structures, both down- and up-regulation of SNAP45 lead to a G2/M arrest with cells displaying abnormal mitotic structures. In contrast, down-regulation of SNAP190, another SNAPc subunit, leads to an accumulation of cells with a G0/G1 DNA content. These results are consistent with the proposal that SNAP45 plays two roles in the cell, one as a subunit of the transcription factor SNAPc and another as a factor required for proper mitotic progression. | INTRODUCTION |
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The snRNA-activating protein complex SNAPc is a multisubunit complex containing five types of subunits, SNAP190, SNAP50, SNAP45, SNAP43, and SNAP19, that is required for RNA polymerase II and III transcription of the human snRNA2 genes (for a review see Ref. 4). The arrangement of the subunits within the complex has been deduced from protein-protein interaction studies and reconstitution of partial complexes in vitro. SNAP190 forms the backbone of the complex and binds three of the four remaining subunits through two main regions as follows: a region within the N-terminal third binds SNAP19 and SNAP43, whereas a region close to the C terminus of the protein binds SNAP45. SNAP50 joins the complex through contacts with SNAP43 (5-8). A subcomplex of SNAPc, referred to as mini-SNAPc, missing the C-terminal two-thirds of SNAP190 and associated SNAP45, is still capable of directing in vitro transcription of RNA polymerase II and III snRNA genes, albeit with lower efficiency than complete SNAPc (7).
We find that SNAP45, but not the backbone SNAPc subunit SNAP190, localizes to the centrosomes during specific stages of mitosis as well as to the spindle midzone during anaphase and the mid-body during telophase. Both down-regulation and overexpression of SNAP45 result in abnormalities in mitotic progression, strongly suggesting that besides its role within the transcription factor SNAPc, SNAP45 performs a second essential function during cell division. Thus, SNAP45 is an example of a protein with two very different functions, the first as a subunit of the transcription factor SNAPc (9) and the second as a protein involved in mitosis.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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For bacterial expression, a pSBet derivative (pSBet-FLAG-SNAP45-His) expressing SNAP45 with an N-terminal FLAG and a C-terminal His tag was transformed into BL21 LysS host cells and expressed by induction with isopropyl 1-thio-β-D-galactopyranoside at room temperature. Recombinant SNAP45 was purified over a Ni2+ affinity column (Qiagen), and the eluted fractions were dialyzed against a buffer containing 20 mM Tris/HCl (pH 7.5), 150 mM NaCl, 5% glycerol, and 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride.
RNA Interference—The siRNAs S3 (GGC UGG UCC CUC CAC UGA A) and S4 (CGA GCA CAG CGA ACU GAA A) directed against SNAP45, or SNAP190-2 (GCA GAA UUG UCU ACU AUA U) and SNAP190-3 (CGU GGA GAU CUC AGA AUC A) directed against SNAP190, or a control siRNA (Qiagen, catalog number 1027281) were purchased from Qiagen. The siRNAs were delivered into the cells at a final concentration of 16 nM with the HiPerFect transfection reagent (Qiagen). The cells were transfected twice at an interval of 24 h and then used for immunoblotting, FACS, and indirect immunofluorescence analyses.
Indirect Immunofluorescence Analyses—Cells were rinsed in PBS (pH 7.4) and then fixed in either 2.0% paraformaldehyde/PBS (pH 7.4) for 15 min or in cold methanol (-20 °C) for 5 min as indicated in the figure legends. In the case of paraformaldehyde fixation, the cells were permeabilized with 0.5% Triton X-100 in PBS for 5 min at room temperature. The cells were rinsed three times with PBS, incubated with the primary anti-body for 1 h at room temperature, and then with the secondary antibodies for 1 h at room temperature (Invitrogen, Alexa Fluor-594 goat anti-rabbit IgG, Alexa Fluor-488 goat anti-mouse IgG). The cells were counterstained with DAPI (Pierce) and mounted with mounting medium (Vector Laboratories). The cells were then examined with a fluorescence microscope (Axioplan 2i; Carl Zeiss MicroImaging Inc.), and digital images were collected with the Open Lab Software (Improvision).
The primary antibodies used in this study were the anti-SNAP45 rabbit polyclonal antibody (SZ2809), raised against the SNAP45 peptide AEGDGAGSKAPEETP-CONH2 with an additional cysteine at the N terminus and affinity-purified against recombinant SNAP45 protein, as well as anti-
-tubulin (clone B-5-1-2, Sigma), anti-
-tubulin (clone GTU-88, Sigma), anti-aurora B (Sigma), anti-HA (HA.11, Covance), anti-cyclin A (clone E23, Invitrogen), anti-cyclin B (BD Biosciences), anti-cyclin D1 (SC-753, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), anti-cyclin E (clone HE12, Invitrogen), anti-H3-Ser-10 (clone 3H10, Upstate), and anti-polo-like kinase (mouse anti-plk1, Invitrogen) antibodies. We also used an anti-hCAP-G antibody, a kind gift of T. Hirano (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), and an anti-caspase 9 antibody, a kind gift of Y. Lazebnik (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory).
Flow Cytometry—Cells were fixed with cold methanol, stained with propidium iodide (2 µg/ml), and analyzed with a LSRII cell analyzer (BD Biosciences). For cell sorting, exponentially growing HeLa S3 cells were stained with Hoechst 3342-A at 10 µg/ml for 30 min, washed, resuspended in fresh medium, and sorted with a FACSVantage SE cell sorter (BD Biosciences). The separated cells were pelleted and frozen for further analysis.
Metaphase Spreads—Mitotic cells were collected by shake off and centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 5 min. The cell pellet was washed with PBS, resuspended in 0.075 M KCl, and incubated for 30 min at 37 °C. The cells were then centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 5 min, and the cell pellet was resuspended in a minimal volume of 0.075 M KCl and cytospun onto clean polylysine-coated coverslips. The cells were fixed with 2.0% paraformaldehyde for 15 min at room temperature and prepared for indirect immunofluorescence microscopy as described above.
BrdUrd Labeling—BrdUrd labeling was performed as described (10). Briefly, cells were incubated with 10 mM BrdUrd (Pharmingen) for 10 min at 37 °C, washed with PBS, and fixed with 2% paraformaldehyde for 15 min at room temperature. Cells were then washed, permeabilized with 0.5% Triton X-100 in PBS for 5 min, incubated with the anti-SNAP45 antibody SZ2809, and followed by the secondary antibody Alexa Fluor-594 goat anti-rabbit IgG. Cells were washed three times for 10 min with PBS and fixed with 2% paraformaldehyde for 15 min at room temperature. The DNA was then denatured with 4 N HCl for 30 min at room temperature, and the cells were washed with PBS and incubated with an anti-BrdUrd antibody conjugated with fluorescein isothiocyanate (Roche Applied Science) for 1 h at room temperature. The cells were then stained with DAPI (Pierce) and mounted.
In Vitro Phosphorylation Assay—For the in vitro phosphorylation assays,
5-10 pmol of SNAP45 and, as a positive control, Orc2 (11) were incubated in 40 µl of kinase buffer (50 mM HEPES (pH 7.0), 10 mM MgCl2, 4 mM MnCl2, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 0.1 mg/ml BSA where indicated, and 2 µCi of [
-32P]ATP) for 30 min at 30 °C in the presence of the indicated amounts of either purified cyclin A/Cdk2, cyclin E/Cdk2, or cyclin B/Cdk1 (Upstate). The reactions were stopped with Laemmli buffer and subjected to SDS-PAGE, and the gels were autoradiographed.
| RESULTS |
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-tubulin control signal, as expected (Fig. 1C). The cyclin B signal was greatly increased in M phase cells, as expected, but also showed an unexpected increase in S phase cells, suggesting a contamination of this cell population by G2/M phase cells. At any rate, however, there was no significant difference in SNAP45 amounts or migration during the cell cycle (Fig. 1C; note that the apparent slower migration of SNAP45 in lanes 3 and 4 reflects warping of the gel), and the same was true for SNAP50.
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tubulin antibody (green) to visualize the microtubule network, and DAPI (blue) to visualize DNA. Fig. 1D shows the results obtained after paraformaldehyde fixation of the cells. In interphase cells, the staining was mainly nuclear, consistent with the role of SNAP45 in transcription, although some weak cytoplasmic staining, which may correspond to background, was visible (Fig. 1D, panels 1-4). During late G2/early prophase, the SNAP45 staining was still largely within regions of DAPI staining (Fig. 1D, panels 5-8), but starting in prometaphase and up to anaphase, it was largely nonoverlapping with the DAPI staining of DNA (panels 9-20). In telophase, the SNAP45 staining started to concentrate again in the two newly formed nuclei (Fig. 1D, panels 21-24). Thus, SNAP45 is mostly nuclear in interphase cells but then seems to separate from the DNA during cell division.
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We stained two other cell lines, the human embryonic kidney HEK-293 cell line and the human osteo-sarcoma U2OS cell line, with the anti-SNAP45 antibody. Both the HEK-293 supplemental Fig. S1B) and U2OS supplemental Fig. S1C) cells displayed very similar staining patterns after formaldehyde fixation as those observed above with HeLa cells (see Fig. 1D), indicating that this SNAP45 staining pattern is not unique to HeLa cells.
To determine whether the spindle pole regions stained with the anti-SNAP45 antibody corresponded to centrosomes, we stained methanol-fixed cells with both the anti-SNAP45 antibody (Fig. 2, red) and an anti-
-tubulin antibody (green), which marks the centrosomes. As shown in Fig. 2, the anti-
-tubulin antibody marked the centrosomal complex in interphase cells (panel b) and the two separated centrosomes during mitosis (panels f, j, n, r, and v). Starting in metaphase and continuing through anaphase and telophase, there was SNAP45 staining overlapping the
-tubulin staining, suggesting that some SNAP45 localizes to the centrosomes in metaphase and stays associated with this structure until telophase (Fig. 2, panels m-x). Thus, the indirect immunofluorescence images reveal a staining pattern that is very unexpected for a transcription factor subunit. We attempted to observe this pattern in living cells with SNAP45-GFP and GFP-SNAP45 fusion proteins, but unfortunately both fusion proteins aberrantly localized to the cytoplasm. Nevertheless, that the staining pattern observed here indeed reflects localization of SNAP45 rather than that of a cross-reacting protein is strongly supported by the results below (see Fig. 4), in which down-regulation of SNAP45 by RNA interference suppresses the staining patterns observed here. Interestingly, none of our antibodies against other SNAPc subunits gave staining patterns similar to those observed with the anti-SNAP45 antibody (data not shown), consistent with the idea that SNAP45 may play a role during mitosis that is separate from its role as a subunit of SNAPc.
Down-regulation of Cellular SNAP45 Results in Defects in Mitotic Progression—The transient association of SNAP45 with the centrosomes during part of mitosis and with the mid-body during telophase prompted us to determine whether the protein might play a role during cell division. HeLa cells were transfected twice at a 24-h interval with two different siRNAs directed against SNAP45. As shown in Fig. 3A by Western blot, the siRNA S4 efficiently down-regulated SNAP45 as early as 24 h after the second transfection, as did the second siRNA directed against SNAP45 (S3; data not shown). In contrast, the levels of the SNAPc subunits SNAP190 and SNAP50 were only slightly diminished, indicating that SNAP45 is not essential for the stability of other SNAPc subunits.
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To characterize the abilities of cells depleted of SNAP45 to progress through S and G2 phases, we checked DNA synthesis. As shown in supplemental Fig. S3,panel A, cells even severely depleted of SNAP45 still incorporated BrdUrd. A survey of 200 cells indicated that 21% of cells transfected with the control siRNA incorporated BrdUrd, for 35% of cells transfected with the siRNA directed against SNAP45. This is consistent with the increase in S phase cells observed by FACS analysis above and suggests that in these cells DNA synthesis is continuing. We also checked for phosphorylation of serine 10 on histone H3, a mitotic marker, and the results are shown in supplemental Fig.S3,panel B. Cells depleted of SNAP45 in early prophase supplemental Fig. S3,panels i-p) or prometaphase Fig. S3,panels ) stained normally for histone H3 phosphorylated at serine 10 as compared with cells transfected with the control siRNA in the same stages (early prophase, Fig. S3,panels a-d, and prometaphase, Fig. S3,panels e-h), suggesting normal Aurora B activity.
As mentioned above, the specific staining of centrosome and mid-body structures observed with anti-SNAP45 antibodies was not observed with antibodies directed against other SNAPc subunits (data not shown). Therefore, we wondered whether the accumulation of S and G2/M phase cells resulted from down-regulation of the entire SNAPc or from specific down-regulation of SNAP45, as suggested by the only slightly changed levels of SNAP190 and SNAP50 after SNAP45 depletion (see above Fig. 3A). To address this question, we transfected cells with an siRNA directed against SNAP190, the largest SNAPc subunit, which forms the backbone of the complex. As shown in Fig. 3D, SNAP190 protein levels were severely decreased, and there was a concomitant decrease in both SNAP50 and SNAP45 protein levels, likely reflecting destabilization of SNAPc. FACS analysis of these cells revealed that, unlike down-regulation of SNAP45 only, down-regulation of SNAP190, SNAP50, and SNAP45 resulted in an accumulation of cells with a G0/G1 DNA content from 68.6 to 81.5%, and a concomitant decrease in cells with S and G2/M DNA contents (Fig. 3E), a pattern typical for down-regulation or inactivation of transcription factors (see for example Ref. 12). The different outcomes of SNAP45 and SNAP190 down-regulation suggest that the mitotic arrest observed upon down-regulation of SNAP45 is not a transcriptional effect resulting from down-regulation of SNAPc but rather an effect specific for down-regulation of the SNAP45 polypeptide.
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-tubulin anti-body (green), and DAPI (blue). The difference in SNAP45 content after anti-SNAP45 siRNA transfection can be seen in Fig. 4A, panel a, which shows one cell, presumably transfected by the siRNA, severely depleted of SNAP45 and harboring an irregular-shaped nucleus, and another, presumably untransfected, showing strong SNAP45 staining and a normal nucleus (panels a-d). Fig. 4A, panels e-x, all show cells severely depleted of SNAP45 at different stages of mitosis. As expected for cells depleted of SNAP45, there is no staining of centrosomes with the anti-SNAP45 antibody (Fig. 4A, see panels m-p, showing a cell in metaphase with a tetrapolar spindle, and panels u-x, showing a cell in anaphase). Instead, a large number of defects are apparent as follows: irregularly shaped nuclei, micronuclei (Fig. 4A, panels c, g, and w), malformed or multipolar spindles (panels j and n), improper chromosome localization and alignment during prometaphase and metaphase (panels k, l and o, p, s, t), and improper chromosome segregation with lagging chromosomes during anaphase resulting in the abnormal nuclei observed in telophase (panels w and x). Such defects were observed in 57% of the cells showing a decrease in SNAP45 and thus presumably transfected with the siRNA directed against SNAP45, compared with 6% of cells transfected with the control siRNA.
Fig. 4B shows SNAP45-depleted, methanol-fixed cells stained with the anti-SNAP45 antibody (red), the anti-
-tubulin antibody (green) to mark the centrosomes, and DAPI. Multiple or perhaps fragmented centrosomes are clearly visible (Fig. 4B, panels b, f, and j). Moreover, DNA trailing is seen at late stage of mitosis (Fig. 4B, panel k). Thus, down-regulation of SNAP45 by RNA interference results in multiple mitotic abnormalities.
Mitotic defects can lead to apoptosis (14). Indeed, some SNAP45-depleted cells had condensed nuclei suggestive of apoptosis (see for example Fig. 4A, panels a-d, left cell depleted of SNAP45). We therefore checked for activation of procaspase 9 by Western blot, and the results are shown in supplemental Fig. S5. In supplemental Fig. S5,lane 5 shows a positive control in which HeLa cells were treated with adriamycin, causing the appearance of activated, cleaved caspase 9. Cleaved and activated caspase 9 also appeared at late times in SNAP45-depleted cells but not in cells treated with the control siRNA, suggesting that at least some of the SNAP45-depleted cells eventually undergo apoptosis.
SNAP45 Depletion Causes Defects in Chromosome Condensation—The defects observed upon SNAP45 depletion included improper chromosome alignment during metaphase, with some chromosomes failing to localize on the equatorial plate. This could result from a defect in chromosome condensation. To examine this possibility more closely, we stained metaphase spreads with antibodies directed against the hCAP-G subunit of the condensin complex (red) and DAPI, and the results are shown in Fig. 5. In cells treated with the control siRNA, the staining reveals properly paired sister chromatids, as expected (see for example Ref. 15). In contrast, in cells depleted of SNAP45, the chromosomes remained bundled together in the metaphase spread; the CAP-G staining was irregular; DNA regions were devoid of CAP-G staining, and no or very few paired sister chromatids were visible. Thus, SNAP45 depletion causes a major defect in chromosome condensation and sister chromatid pairing at metaphase.
Overexpression of SNAP45 Leads to Multiple Mitotic Defects—The results above indicate that down-regulation of SNAP45 causes major defects in mitosis. Therefore, we wondered whether overexpression of SNAP45 might also lead to abnormalities. Several clonal cell lines were generated that modestly overexpressed HA-tagged SNAP45. The global level of overexpression for one of these cell lines, referred to as F1, was about 2-fold, as measured by Western blot (Fig. 6, A and B). FACS analysis of this cell line, shown in Fig. 6C, revealed an accumulation of cells with S and G2/M phase DNA contents, from about 15 to 25% for S phase cells and from 10 to 28% for G2/M cells. Thus, like down-regulation of SNAP45, overexpression of SNAP45 results in a disruption of the normal cell cycle with accumulation of cells with S and G2/M DNA contents.
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Even though the cells shown in Fig. 6D look relatively normal, 39% of the cells overexpressing SNAP45 displayed abnormalities compared with 8% of cells transfected with the empty vector. Examples of such abnormalities are shown in Fig. 7A, which displays staining with anti-SNAP45 (red) and anti-HA (green) antibodies, as well as with DAPI. Staining with the anti-SNAP45 antibody gave again a very similar pattern as staining with the anti-HA antibody during all stages of mitosis (Fig. 7A, compare panels a and b, e and f, i and j, m and n, and q and r) except in telophase (panels u and v). Micronuclei were visible in interphase cells (Fig. 7A, panels a-d). Problems in chromosome localization were apparent in metaphase cells, probably due at least in part to a multipolar spindle (Fig. 7A, panels m-p), and chromosome segregation was defective during anaphase and telophase (panels q-x) with lagging chromosomes, probably giving rise to the micronuclei observed in interphase cells.
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tubulin antibody, as shown in Fig. 7B. This revealed a greatly increased number of multiple aster cells, from 2% in the cell population transfected with the empty vector to 10% in the cell population overexpressing SNAP45. Thus, overexpression of SNAP45 leads to a series of defects very similar to those observed upon depletion of SNAP45. SNAP45 Is a Substrate for Cdk1/Cyclin B in Vitro—Visual inspection of the SNAP45 amino acid sequence revealed five putative phosphorylation sites for the Cdk1/cyclin B kinase. A consensus phosphorylation site ((S/T)PX(K/R)) (16), TPAR, is present at the very C terminus of the protein. Moreover, four sites matching the minimal consensus sequence ((S/T)P (16)) occur at positions 181 (TP), 222 (SP), 292 (TP), and 306 (SP). We therefore checked whether this kinase could phosphorylate SNAP45 in vitro. The upper and lower panels in Fig. 8A show the proteins included in the reaction as seen by silver stain and radioactive signal, respectively. SNAP45 on its own did not get phosphorylated (Fig. 8A, lower panel, lane 1), whereas Cdk1/cyclin B showed autophosphorylation of cyclin B, as expected (lower panel, lane 2) (17). When Cdk1/cyclin B was incubated together with either SNAP45 or the positive control Orc2, a known substrate of Cdk1/cyclin B (18), strong radioactive signals corresponding to phosphorylated cyclin B as well as phosphorylated SNAP45 and Orc2, respectively, were visible ((Fig. 8A, lower panel, lanes 3 and 4). We then lowered the amount of kinase, included an excess of BSA in the reactions, and tested in addition Cdk2/cyclin A, which is known to phosphorylate Orc2 but presumably not SNAP45. As shown in Fig. 8B, BSA, which co-migrated with Orc2 as seen by silver staining (upper panel), was phosphorylated neither by Cdk2/cyclin A nor by Cdk1/cyclin B (lower panel, lanes 1 and 4). Orc2 was phosphorylated by both enzymes (Fig. 8B, upper and lower panels, lanes 3 and 6), indicating that both kinase complexes were active. As expected, cyclin B was phosphorylated in the reactions containing Cdk1/cyclin B (Fig. 8B, lower panel, lanes 4-6). Unlike Orc2, SNAP45 was only phosphorylated by Cdk1/cyclin B (Fig. 8B, compare lanes 2 and 5), and this even in the presence of large amounts of BSA, suggesting that this phosphorylation event is specific. Indeed, SNAP45 was similarly refractive to phosphorylation by Cdk2/cyclin E (see supplemental Fig. S6). Thus, SNAP45 is a specific substrate of Cdk1/cyclin B, at least in vitro.
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| DISCUSSION |
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SNAP45 Plays a Role Different from Other SNAPc Subunits—SNAP45 was first identified as a subunit of SNAPc, a complex involved in snRNA gene transcription (9, 22). However, we have not seen SNAPc subunits other than SNAP45 localized to centrosomes and mid-bodies during mitosis. Moreover, down-regulation of SNAP190, which results in concomitant down-regulation of the other SNAPc subunits SNAP50 and SNAP45, results in accumulation of cells with G0/G1 DNA content. This is consistent with a role of SNAPc as a factor involved in transcription of small nuclear RNAs essential for cell metabolism, and indeed consistent with the observation that down-regulation of a SNAP50 homologue in plants prevents efficient cell proliferation (23). In contrast, down-regulation of SNAP45 does not result in obvious down-regulation of SNAP190 or SNAP50 and causes a mitotic rather than a G0/G1 arrest. These observations suggest that SNAP45 may play two different roles in the cell, one in transcription as a subunit of SNAPc and the other in mitotic progression as a protein probably outside of the SNAPc context.
It is intriguing that like other proteins essential for mitosis, such as NuMA and TPX2 (24-26), SNAP45 has appeared relatively late in evolution as SNAP45-like sequences can be found only in vertebrates. There is a recognizable SNAPc in Drosophila melanogaster, but the complex is limited to the components present in the minimal functional core of SNAPc, mini-SNAPc (27), and lacks SNAP45 as well as the SNAP190 C-terminal third that, in human SNAPc, associates with SNAP45. Thus, SNAP45 seems to have appeared in vertebrates, both as an elaboration of the SNAP complex, and as a protein required for proper mitosis.
Human SNAP45 Is Phosphorylated in Vitro by Cdk1/Cyclin B—Among vertebrates, SNAP45 is quite conserved (for example, 65% identities between man and dog, and 25% identities between man and zebrafish SNAP45). The consensus Cdk1/cyclin B phosphorylation site at the very C terminus is, how-ever, only present in some species (Macaca mulatta and Macaca fascicularis, Canis familiaris, and Mus musculus), although all proteins contain minimal Cdk1/cyclin B putative phosphorylation sites, and may thus also be phosphorylated by this kinase but at different sites. We show that human SNAP45 is a good substrate for Cdk1/cyclin B in vitro, suggesting that it might also be phosphorylated by this kinase in vivo. Phosphorylation by Cdk1/cyclin B often serves to disrupt protein-protein interactions, and thus one might imagine that it might release SNAP45 from SNAPc. On the other hand, SNAP45 phosphorylation by Cdk1/cyclin B may more directly regulate its role during mitosis, for example by allowing its recruitment to centrosomes, in the same way that Cdk1/cyclin B phosphorylation of Eg5 allows its recruitment to centrosomes and spindle microtubules (28, 29).
Alteration of SNAP45 Levels Causes Multiple Mitotic Defects—For many proteins involved in mitosis, up- and down-regulation causes a wide variety of effects. For example, subunits of Orc such as Orc2 and Orc6 localize to centrosomes, centromeres, and heterochromatin in the first case, and kineto-chores and mid-bodies in the second case. Down-regulation of these proteins by siRNA causes not only defects in S phase but also multiple centrosomes, abnormally condensed chromosomes, failed chromosome congression, and, in the second case, multinucleated cells (30). As another example, BRCA1 localizes to centrosomes (31, 32), and its down-regulation causes amplification and fragmentation of centrosomes in cell lines derived from mammary tissue (33, 34) and defective chromosome condensation and segregation in other cell lines (35). Like for Orc2, Orc6, Brca1, and a number of other proteins, disrupting the normal levels of SNAP45 results in a number of mitotic defects, which suggests an involvement of SNAP45 in several processes, including the centrosome cycle, the alignment of chromosomes at the metaphase plate, and chromosomes condensation and segregation. Finally, the localization of SNAP45 in mid-bodies suggests a role in cytokinesis, a possibility supported by an observed increase of multinucleated cells in cell lines overexpressing SNAP45 (data not shown).
The defects observed upon both up-regulation and down-regulation of SNAP45 include defective chromosome segregation and formation of micronuclei. In some cells this may lead to aneuploidy, which itself can be both oncogenic and tumor-suppressing (21, 36). In the case of SNAP45, severe depletion is likely to lead to cell death as a result of both defective mitosis and defective snRNA gene transcription. Indeed, we observe activation of pro-caspase 9 at late times after transfection of siRNAs directed against SNAP45. However, all our experiments were performed with the transformed HeLa cell line. Depletion of polo-like kinase 1 leads to cell death in p53-deficient cancer cells but has little effect in nontransformed cells, making polo-like kinase 1 a potential target for cancer therapy (37). It will be interesting to determine whether mild depletion of SNAP45, which may still maintain enough snRNA gene transcription, is tolerated better by normal cells as compared with transformed cells.
| FOOTNOTES |
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* This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institutes of Health Grant GM38810. This work was also supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and by Swiss National Science Foundation Grant 3100A0-109941/1. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. ![]()
The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental Figs. S1-S6. ![]()
Author's Choice
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License applies to Author Choice Articles
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Génopode Bldg., Quartier Sorge, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Fax: 41-21-692-3925; E-mail: Nouria.Hernandez{at}unil.ch.
2 The abbreviations used are: snRNA, small nuclear RNA; siRNA, silencing RNA; BSA, bovine serum albumin; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; FACS, fluorescence-activated cell sorter; BrdUrd, bromodeoxyuridine; DAPI, 4',6-dia-midino-2-phenylindole; Orc, origin recognition complex. ![]()
3 M. Shanmugam and N. Hernandez, unpublished observations. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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