PUBLICATION

Tubulin tyrosine ligase like genes TTLL3 and TTLL6 maintain zebrafish cilia structure and motility

Authors
Pathak, N., Austin, C.A., and Drummond, I.A.
ID
ZDB-PUB-110131-16
Date
2011
Source
The Journal of biological chemistry   286(13): 11685-11695 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Drummond, Iain, Pathak, Naremdra
Keywords
Development, Microtubules, Post translational modification, Tubulin, Zebra fish, cilia, tubulin tyrosine ligase like
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Axoneme/genetics
  • Axoneme/metabolism
  • Axoneme/ultrastructure
  • Cilia/enzymology
  • Cilia/genetics
  • Cilia/ultrastructure
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic/physiology*
  • Gene Knockdown Techniques
  • Mutation
  • Organ Specificity/physiology
  • Peptide Synthases/genetics
  • Peptide Synthases/metabolism*
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational/physiology*
  • Tubulin/genetics
  • Tubulin/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish/anatomy & histology
  • Zebrafish/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
PubMed
21262966 Full text @ J. Biol. Chem.
Abstract
Tubulin posttranslational modifications generate microtubule heterogeneity and modulate microtubule function, and are catalyzed by tubulin tyrosine ligase like (TTLL) proteins. Using antibodies specific to monoglycylated, polyglycylated, and glutamylated tubulin in wholemount immunostaining of zebrafish embryos, we observed distinct, tissue-specific patterns of tubulin modifications. Tubulin modification patterns in cilia correlated with the expression of ttll3 and ttll6 in ciliated cells. Expression screening of all zebrafish tubulin tyrosine ligase like genes revealed additional tissue-specific expression of ttll1 in brain neurons, ttll4 in muscle, and ttll7 in otic placodes. Knockdown of ttll3 eliminated cilia tubulin glycylation but had surprisingly mild effects on cilia structure and motility. Similarly, knockdown of ttll6 strongly reduced cilia tubulin glutamylation but only partially affected cilia structure and motility. Combined loss of function of ttll3 and ttll6 caused near complete loss of cilia motility and induced a variety of axonemal ultrastructural defects similar to defects previously observed in zebrafish fleer mutants which were shown to lack tubulin glutamylation. Consistently, we find that fleer mutants also lack tubulin glycylation. These results indicate that tubulin glycylation and glutamylation have overlapping functions in maintaining cilia structure and motility and that the fleer/dyf-1 TPR protein is required for both types of tubulin postranslational modification.
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