DPY-17 and MUA-3 Interact for Connective Tissue-Like Tissue Integrity in Caenorhabditis elegans: A Model for Marfan Syndrome

Authors

Pauline Fotopoulos, Virginia Commonwealth University
Jeongho Kim, Inha University
Moonjung Hyun, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityFollow
Waiss Qamari, Virginia Commonwealth University
Inhwan Lee, Virginia Commonwealth University
Young-Jai You, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2015

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Genetics Society America

Volume

5

Issue

7

DOI of Original Publication

10.1534/g3.115.018465

Comments

Originally published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1534/g3.115.018465

Date of Submission

April 2016

Abstract

mua-3 is a Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of the mammalian fibrillin1, a monogenic cause of Marfan syndrome. We identified a new mutation of mua-3that carries an in-frame deletion of 131 amino acids in the extracellular domain, which allows the mutants to survive in a temperature-dependent manner; at the permissive temperature, the mutants grow normally without obvious phenotypes, but at the nonpermissive temperature, more than 90% die during the L4 molt due to internal organ detachment. Using the temperature-sensitive lethality, we performed unbiased genetic screens to isolate suppressors to find genetic interactors of MUA-3. From two independent screens, we isolated mutations in dpy-17 as a suppressor. RNAi of dpy-17 inmua-3 rescued the lethality, confirming dpy-17 is a suppressor. dpy-17encodes a collagen known to genetically interact with dpy-31, a BMP-1/Tolloid-like metalloprotease required for TGFβ activation in mammals. Human fibrillin1 mutants fail to sequester TGFβ2 leading to excess TGFβ signaling, which in turn contributes to Marfan syndrome or Marfan-related syndrome. Consistent with that, RNAi of dbl-1, a TGFβ homolog, modestly rescued the lethality of mua-3 mutants, suggesting a potentially conserved interaction between MUA-3 and a TGFβ pathway in C. elegans. Our work provides genetic evidence of the interaction between TGFβ and a fibrillin homolog, and thus provides a simple yet powerful genetic model to study TGFβ function in development of Marfan pathology.

Rights

Copyright © 2015 Fotopoulos et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Is Part Of

VCU Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Publications