Schnyder corneal dystrophy-associated UBIAD1 Inhibits ER-associated degradation of HMG CoA reductase in mice
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States
Abstract
Autosomal-dominant Schnyder corneal dystrophy (SCD) is characterized by corneal opacification owing to overaccumulation of cholesterol. SCD is caused by mutations in UBIAD1, which utilizes geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGpp) to synthesize vitamin K2. Using cultured cells, we previously showed that sterols trigger binding of UBIAD1 to the cholesterol biosynthetic enzyme HMG CoA reductase (HMGCR), thereby inhibiting its endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation (ERAD) (Schumacher et al. 2015). GGpp triggers release of UBIAD1 from HMGCR, allowing maximal ERAD and ER-to-Golgi transport of UBIAD1. SCD-associated UBIAD1 resists GGpp-induced release and is sequestered in ER to inhibit ERAD. We now report knockin mice expressing SCD-associated UBIAD1 accumulate HMGCR in several tissues resulting from ER sequestration of mutant UBIAD1 and inhibition of HMGCR ERAD. Corneas from aged knockin mice exhibit signs of opacification and sterol overaccumulation. These results establish the physiological significance of UBIAD1 in cholesterol homeostasis and indicate inhibition of HMGCR ERAD contributes to SCD pathogenesis.
Data availability
All data generated in this study are included in the manuscript.
Article and author information
Author details
Russell A DeBose-Boyd
Funding
National Institutes of Health (HL-20948)
- Russell A DeBose-Boyd
National Institutes of Health (GM-112409)
- Russell A DeBose-Boyd
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animal work described in this manuscript has been approved and conducted under the oversight of the UT Southwestern Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Protocol # - 2016-101636).
Copyright
© 2019, Jo et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Schnyder corneal dystrophy-associated UBIAD1 Inhibits ER-associated degradation of HMG CoA reductase in mice
eLife 8:e44396.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.44396
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