Pathway specific effects of ADSL deficiency on neurodevelopment
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Spain
- University of Tubingen, Germany
- Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona, Spain
- Charles University, Czech Republic
- National Cancer Institute, United States
- Spanish Biomedical Research Center in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders, Spain
- University of Barcelona, Spain
- University of Tübingen, Germany
Abstract
Adenylosuccinate Lyase (ADSL) functions in de novo purine biosynthesis (DNPS) and the purine nucleotide cycle. ADSL deficiency (ADSLD) causes numerous neurodevelopmental pathologies, including microcephaly and autism spectrum disorder. ADSLD patients have normal serum purine nucleotide levels but exhibit accumulation of dephosphorylated ADSL substrates, S-Ado and SAICAr, the latter being implicated in neurotoxic effects through unknown mechanisms. We examined the phenotypic effects of ADSL depletion in human cells and their relation to phenotypic outcomes. Using specific interventions to compensate for reduced purine levels or modulate SAICAr accumulation, we found that diminished AMP levels resulted in increased DNA damage signaling and cell cycle delays, while primary ciliogenesis was impaired specifically by loss of ADSL or administration of SAICAr. ADSL deficient chicken and zebrafish embryos displayed impaired neurogenesis and microcephaly. Neuroprogenitor attrition in zebrafish embryos was rescued by pharmacological inhibition of DNPS, but not increased nucleotide concentration. Zebrafish also displayed phenotypes commonly linked to ciliopathies. Our results suggest that both reduced purine levels and impaired DNPS contribute to neurodevelopmental pathology in ADSLD and that defective ciliogenesis may influence the ADSLD phenotypic spectrum.
Data availability
Most data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting source data files. Additional source data is available via Figshare, https://doi.org/10.25452/figshare.plus.c.5793614
Article and author information
Author details
Cedric Boeckx Prof
Martin D Burkhalter
Funding
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (754510)
- Ilaria Dutto
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PGC2018-099562-B-I00)
- Jens Lüders
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PGC2018-095616-B-I00)
- Travis H Stracker
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG PH144/4-1)
- Melanie Philipp
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (PH144/6-1)
- Melanie Philipp
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (2017 SGR)
- Jens Lüders
- Travis H Stracker
Charles University (PROGRES Q26/LF1)
- Olga Souckova
- Václava Škopová
- Marie Zikánová
Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (BFU2017-83562-P)
- Sebastian Pons
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
Metrics
-
- 1,627
- views
-
- 240
- downloads
-
- 10
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Pathway specific effects of ADSL deficiency on neurodevelopment
eLife 11:e70518.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70518
Further reading
-
- Cell Biology
- Neuroscience
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain. Familial cases of PD are often caused by mutations of PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) and the ubiquitin ligase Parkin, both pivotal in maintaining mitochondrial quality control. CISD1, a homodimeric mitochondrial iron-sulfur-binding protein, is a major target of Parkin-mediated ubiquitination. We here discovered a heightened propensity of CISD1 to form dimers in Pink1 mutant flies and in dopaminergic neurons from PINK1 mutation patients. The dimer consists of two monomers that are covalently linked by a disulfide bridge. In this conformation CISD1 cannot coordinate the iron-sulfur cofactor. Overexpressing Cisd, the Drosophila ortholog of CISD1, and a mutant Cisd incapable of binding the iron-sulfur cluster in Drosophila reduced climbing ability and lifespan. This was more pronounced with mutant Cisd and aggravated in Pink1 mutant flies. Complete loss of Cisd, in contrast, rescued all detrimental effects of Pink1 mutation on climbing ability, wing posture, dopamine levels, lifespan, and mitochondrial ultrastructure. Our results suggest that Cisd, probably iron-depleted Cisd, operates downstream of Pink1 shedding light on PD pathophysiology and implicating CISD1 as a potential therapeutic target.
-
- Cell Biology
Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are open actin- and membrane-based channels, connecting remote cells and allowing direct transfer of cellular material (e.g. vesicles, mRNAs, protein aggregates) from the cytoplasm to the cytoplasm. Although they are important especially, in pathological conditions (e.g. cancers, neurodegenerative diseases), their precise composition and their regulation were still poorly described. Here, using a biochemical approach allowing to separate TNTs from cell bodies and from extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs), we obtained the full composition of TNTs compared to EVPs. We then focused on two major components of our proteomic data, the CD9 and CD81 tetraspanins, and further investigated their specific roles in TNT formation and function. We show that these two tetraspanins have distinct non-redundant functions: CD9 participates in stabilizing TNTs, whereas CD81 expression is required to allow the functional transfer of vesicles in the newly formed TNTs, possibly by regulating docking to or fusion with the opposing cell.
