N-ethylmaleimide Sensitive Factor is Required for Fusion of the C. Elegans Uterine Anchor Cell.
From: Verna and Marrs Maclean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Developmental biology
- Publish Date: Sep 2006
- ISSN: 0012-1606
- Volume: 297
- Issue: 1
- Pages: 87-102
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Choi Jaebok, Richards Keri L, Cinar Hediye Nese, et al. N-ethylmaleimide Sensitive Factor is Required for Fusion of the C. Elegans Uterine Anchor Cell.. Dev. Biol. Sep 2006;297:87-102
Abstract
The fusion of the Caenorhabditis elegans uterine anchor cell (AC) with the uterine-seam cell (utse) is an excellent model system for studying cell-cell fusion, which is essential to animal development. We obtained an egg-laying defective (Egl) mutant in which the AC fails to fuse with the utse. This defect is highly specific: other aspects of utse development and other cell fusions appear to occur normally. We find that defect is due to a missense mutation in the nsf-1 gene, which encodes N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (NSF), an intracellular membrane fusion factor. There are two NSF-1 isoforms, which are expressed in distinct tissues through two separate promoters. NSF-1L is expressed in the uterus, including the AC. We find that nsf-1 is required cell-autonomously in the AC for its fusion with the utse. Our results establish AC fusion as a paradigm for studying cell fusion at single cell resolution and demonstrate that the NSF ATPase is a key player in this process.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Animals, Animals, Genetically Modified, Caenorhabditis elegans, Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins, Cell Fusion, Ethylmaleimide, Female, Membrane Glycoproteins, Mutation, Missense, N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Proteins, Organ Specificity, Phenotype, Promoter Regions (Genetics), Uterus
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 16769048
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