Effect of destrin mutations on the gene expression profile in vivo

AM Verdoni, N Aoyama, A Ikeda… - Physiological …, 2008 - journals.physiology.org
AM Verdoni, N Aoyama, A Ikeda, S Ikeda
Physiological genomics, 2008journals.physiology.org
Remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton through actin dynamics (assembly and disassembly of
filamentous actin) is known to be essential for numerous basic biological processes. In
addition, recent studies have provided evidence that actin dynamics participate in the control
of gene expression. A spontaneous mouse mutant, corneal disease 1 (corn1), is deficient for
a regulator of actin dynamics, destrin (DSTN, also known as ADF), which causes epithelial
hyperproliferation and neovascularization in the cornea. Dstn corn1 mice exhibit an actin …
Remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton through actin dynamics (assembly and disassembly of filamentous actin) is known to be essential for numerous basic biological processes. In addition, recent studies have provided evidence that actin dynamics participate in the control of gene expression. A spontaneous mouse mutant, corneal disease 1 (corn1), is deficient for a regulator of actin dynamics, destrin (DSTN, also known as ADF), which causes epithelial hyperproliferation and neovascularization in the cornea. Dstncorn1 mice exhibit an actin dynamics defect in the corneal epithelial cells, offering an in vivo model to investigate cellular mechanisms affected by the Dstn mutation and resultant actin dynamics abnormalities. To examine the effect of the Dstncorn1 mutation on the gene expression profile, we performed a microarray analysis using the cornea from Dstncorn1 and wild-type mice. A dramatic alteration of the gene expression profile was observed in the Dstncorn1 cornea, with 1,226 annotated genes differentially expressed. Functional annotation of these genes revealed that the most significantly enriched functional categories are associated with actin and/or cytoskeleton. Among genes that belong to these categories, a considerable number of serum response factor target genes were found, indicating the possible existence of an actin-SRF pathway of transcriptional regulation in vivo. A comparative study using an allelic mutant strain with milder corneal phenotypes suggested that the level of filamentous actin may correlate with the level of gene expression changes. Our study shows that Dstn mutations and resultant actin dynamics abnormalities have a strong impact on the gene expression profile in vivo.
American Physiological Society