Abstract
The dysfunction of the primary cilium, a complex, evolutionarily conserved, organelle playing an important role in sensing and transducing cell signals, is the unifying pathogenetic mechanism of a growing number of diseases collectively termed "ciliopathies", typically characterized by multiorgan involvement. Developmental defects of the central nervous system (CNS) characterize a subset of ciliopathies showing clinical and genetic overlap, such as Joubert syndrome (JS) and Meckel syndrome (MS). Although several knock-out mice lacking a variety of ciliary proteins have shown the importance of primary cilia in the development of the brain and CNS-derived structures, developmental in vitro studies, extremely useful to unravel the role of primary cilia along the course of neural differentiation, are still missing.Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) have been recently proven to mimic brain development, giving the unique opportunity to dissect the CNS differentiation process along its sequential steps. In the present study we show that mESCs express the ciliary proteins Meckelin and Jouberin in a developmentally-regulated manner, and that these proteins co-localize with acetylated tubulin labeled cilia located at the outer embryonic layer. Further, mESCs differentiating along the neuronal lineage activate the cilia-dependent sonic hedgehog signaling machinery, which is impaired in Meckelin knock-out cells but results unaffected in Jouberin-deficient mESCs. However, both lose the ability to acquire a neuronal phenotype. Altogether, these results demonstrate a pivotal role of Meckelin and Jouberin during embryonic neural specification and indicate mESCs as a suitable tool to investigate the developmental impact of ciliary proteins dysfunction.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 134-146 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Differentiation |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue number | 3-4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
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Keywords
- Embryonic stem cells
- Neural differentiation
- Primary cilium
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental Biology
- Cell Biology
- Molecular Biology
- Cancer Research
Cite this
The ciliary proteins Meckelin and Jouberin are required for retinoic acid-dependent neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells. / Romani, Sveva; Illi, Barbara; De Mori, Roberta; Savino, Mauro; Gleeson, Joseph G.; Valente, Enza Maria.
In: Differentiation, Vol. 87, No. 3-4, 2014, p. 134-146.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The ciliary proteins Meckelin and Jouberin are required for retinoic acid-dependent neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells
AU - Romani, Sveva
AU - Illi, Barbara
AU - De Mori, Roberta
AU - Savino, Mauro
AU - Gleeson, Joseph G.
AU - Valente, Enza Maria
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The dysfunction of the primary cilium, a complex, evolutionarily conserved, organelle playing an important role in sensing and transducing cell signals, is the unifying pathogenetic mechanism of a growing number of diseases collectively termed "ciliopathies", typically characterized by multiorgan involvement. Developmental defects of the central nervous system (CNS) characterize a subset of ciliopathies showing clinical and genetic overlap, such as Joubert syndrome (JS) and Meckel syndrome (MS). Although several knock-out mice lacking a variety of ciliary proteins have shown the importance of primary cilia in the development of the brain and CNS-derived structures, developmental in vitro studies, extremely useful to unravel the role of primary cilia along the course of neural differentiation, are still missing.Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) have been recently proven to mimic brain development, giving the unique opportunity to dissect the CNS differentiation process along its sequential steps. In the present study we show that mESCs express the ciliary proteins Meckelin and Jouberin in a developmentally-regulated manner, and that these proteins co-localize with acetylated tubulin labeled cilia located at the outer embryonic layer. Further, mESCs differentiating along the neuronal lineage activate the cilia-dependent sonic hedgehog signaling machinery, which is impaired in Meckelin knock-out cells but results unaffected in Jouberin-deficient mESCs. However, both lose the ability to acquire a neuronal phenotype. Altogether, these results demonstrate a pivotal role of Meckelin and Jouberin during embryonic neural specification and indicate mESCs as a suitable tool to investigate the developmental impact of ciliary proteins dysfunction.
AB - The dysfunction of the primary cilium, a complex, evolutionarily conserved, organelle playing an important role in sensing and transducing cell signals, is the unifying pathogenetic mechanism of a growing number of diseases collectively termed "ciliopathies", typically characterized by multiorgan involvement. Developmental defects of the central nervous system (CNS) characterize a subset of ciliopathies showing clinical and genetic overlap, such as Joubert syndrome (JS) and Meckel syndrome (MS). Although several knock-out mice lacking a variety of ciliary proteins have shown the importance of primary cilia in the development of the brain and CNS-derived structures, developmental in vitro studies, extremely useful to unravel the role of primary cilia along the course of neural differentiation, are still missing.Mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) have been recently proven to mimic brain development, giving the unique opportunity to dissect the CNS differentiation process along its sequential steps. In the present study we show that mESCs express the ciliary proteins Meckelin and Jouberin in a developmentally-regulated manner, and that these proteins co-localize with acetylated tubulin labeled cilia located at the outer embryonic layer. Further, mESCs differentiating along the neuronal lineage activate the cilia-dependent sonic hedgehog signaling machinery, which is impaired in Meckelin knock-out cells but results unaffected in Jouberin-deficient mESCs. However, both lose the ability to acquire a neuronal phenotype. Altogether, these results demonstrate a pivotal role of Meckelin and Jouberin during embryonic neural specification and indicate mESCs as a suitable tool to investigate the developmental impact of ciliary proteins dysfunction.
KW - Embryonic stem cells
KW - Neural differentiation
KW - Primary cilium
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904818409&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84904818409&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.diff.2014.02.005
DO - 10.1016/j.diff.2014.02.005
M3 - Article
VL - 87
SP - 134
EP - 146
JO - Differentiation
JF - Differentiation
SN - 0301-4681
IS - 3-4
ER -