Molecular and Cellular Functions of the PP2A Serine/Threonine Phosphatase in Dendritic Diversification
Bhattacharjee, Shatabdi
Citations
Abstract
Discovering the molecular mechanisms that regulate dendritic diversification is essential to understanding the formation and modulation of functional neural circuitry. Recent studies have demonstrated that the TFs Cut and Knot combinatorially regulate cell-type specific dendritogenesis in Drosophila multidendritic (md) sensory neurons via cellular pathways that converge on cytoskeletal architecture. Neurogenomic analyses identified PP2A serine/threonine phosphatase complex as a downstream effector of both Cut and Knot. The PP2A complex is composed of a catalytic subunit microtubule star (mts), a scaffolding subunit PP2A-29B, and one of four alternate regulatory subunits widerborst (wdb), twins, well-rounded (wrd) and CG4733. Mutant analyses of mts and PP2A-29B reveal severe reductions in dendritic arborization with wdb appearing to function as the relevant regulatory subunit in Class IV (CIV) md sensory neurons. In contrast, mutations in mts and PP2A-29B leads to increased dendritic complexity in Class I (CI) md sensory neurons. Cellularly, live imaging reveals that mts mutations lead to microtubule (MT) destabilization. In addition, dynamic EB1
