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The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes

BACKGROUND: The founding member of the EMAP-like protein family is the Echinoderm Microtubule-Associated Protein (EMAP), so-named for its abundance in sea urchin, starfish, and sand dollar eggs. The EMAP-like protein family has five members in mammals (EML1 through EML5) and only one in both Drosoph...

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Autores principales: Hueston, Jennifer L, Herren, Gina Purinton, Cueva, Juan G, Buechner, Matthew, Lundquist, Erik A, Goodman, Miriam B, Suprenant, Kathy A
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2642796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19014691
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-213X-8-110
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author Hueston, Jennifer L
Herren, Gina Purinton
Cueva, Juan G
Buechner, Matthew
Lundquist, Erik A
Goodman, Miriam B
Suprenant, Kathy A
author_facet Hueston, Jennifer L
Herren, Gina Purinton
Cueva, Juan G
Buechner, Matthew
Lundquist, Erik A
Goodman, Miriam B
Suprenant, Kathy A
author_sort Hueston, Jennifer L
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The founding member of the EMAP-like protein family is the Echinoderm Microtubule-Associated Protein (EMAP), so-named for its abundance in sea urchin, starfish, and sand dollar eggs. The EMAP-like protein family has five members in mammals (EML1 through EML5) and only one in both Drosophila (ELP-1) and C. elegans (ELP-1). Biochemical studies of sea urchin EMAP and vertebrate EMLs implicate these proteins in the regulation of microtubule stability. So far, however, the physiological function of this protein family remains unknown. RESULTS: We examined the expression pattern of C. elegans ELP-1 by means of transgenic gene expression in living embryos and adults, and by immunolocalization with an ELP-1-specific antibody in fixed tissues. In embryos, ELP-1 is expressed in the hypodermis. In larvae and adults, ELP-1 is expressed in the body wall, spermatheca and vulval muscles, intestine, and hypodermal seam cells. In muscle, ELP-1 is associated with adhesion complexes near the cell surface and is bound to a criss-crossing network of microtubules in the cytoplasm. ELP-1 is also expressed in a subset of mechanoreceptor neurons, including the ray neurons in the male tail, microtubule-rich touch receptor neurons, and the six ciliated IL1 neurons. This restricted localization in the nervous system implies that ELP-1 plays a role in mechanotransmission. Consistent with this idea, decreasing ELP-1 expression decreases sensitivity to gentle touch applied to the body wall. CONCLUSION: These data imply that ELP-1 may play an important role during the transmission of forces and signals between the body surface and both muscle cells and touch receptor neurons.
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spelling pubmed-26427962009-02-14 The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes Hueston, Jennifer L Herren, Gina Purinton Cueva, Juan G Buechner, Matthew Lundquist, Erik A Goodman, Miriam B Suprenant, Kathy A BMC Dev Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: The founding member of the EMAP-like protein family is the Echinoderm Microtubule-Associated Protein (EMAP), so-named for its abundance in sea urchin, starfish, and sand dollar eggs. The EMAP-like protein family has five members in mammals (EML1 through EML5) and only one in both Drosophila (ELP-1) and C. elegans (ELP-1). Biochemical studies of sea urchin EMAP and vertebrate EMLs implicate these proteins in the regulation of microtubule stability. So far, however, the physiological function of this protein family remains unknown. RESULTS: We examined the expression pattern of C. elegans ELP-1 by means of transgenic gene expression in living embryos and adults, and by immunolocalization with an ELP-1-specific antibody in fixed tissues. In embryos, ELP-1 is expressed in the hypodermis. In larvae and adults, ELP-1 is expressed in the body wall, spermatheca and vulval muscles, intestine, and hypodermal seam cells. In muscle, ELP-1 is associated with adhesion complexes near the cell surface and is bound to a criss-crossing network of microtubules in the cytoplasm. ELP-1 is also expressed in a subset of mechanoreceptor neurons, including the ray neurons in the male tail, microtubule-rich touch receptor neurons, and the six ciliated IL1 neurons. This restricted localization in the nervous system implies that ELP-1 plays a role in mechanotransmission. Consistent with this idea, decreasing ELP-1 expression decreases sensitivity to gentle touch applied to the body wall. CONCLUSION: These data imply that ELP-1 may play an important role during the transmission of forces and signals between the body surface and both muscle cells and touch receptor neurons. BioMed Central 2008-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC2642796/ /pubmed/19014691 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-213X-8-110 Text en Copyright © 2008 Hueston et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hueston, Jennifer L
Herren, Gina Purinton
Cueva, Juan G
Buechner, Matthew
Lundquist, Erik A
Goodman, Miriam B
Suprenant, Kathy A
The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes
title The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes
title_full The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes
title_fullStr The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes
title_full_unstemmed The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes
title_short The C. elegans EMAP-like protein, ELP-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes
title_sort c. elegans emap-like protein, elp-1 is required for touch sensation and associates with microtubules and adhesion complexes
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2642796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19014691
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-213X-8-110
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