Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, January, 2009. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-122).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2003. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Les insuffisances médullaires héréditaires (IMH) réunissent quatre syndromes principaux : le syndrome de Shwachman-Diamond, la Dyskératose Congénitale, l’anémie de Diamond Blackfan et l'anémie de Fanconi (FA) qui est le syndrome le plus fréquent. Alors que l'étiologie des autres IMH est reliée à des défauts de biogenèse des ribosomes ou d'homéostasie du nucléole, l'étiologie de la FA est considérée comme reposant principalement sur des défauts de réparation de l'ADN.La FA est un syndrome autosomique récessif rare qui inclut des défauts de développement, une prédisposition au cancer et des défauts hématologiques progressifs. Les patients présentent une pancytopénie précoce associée à une myélodysplasie qui les prédispose à la leucémie myéloïde aiguë. La sensibilité cellulaire aux agents pontants de l'ADN est la principale caractéristique qui distingue ce syndrome des autres IMH. La maladie est causée par des mutations homozygotes de la voie FANC-BRCA, qui réunit plus de vingt protéines nécessaires pour la réparation des pontages interbrins de l'ADN ainsi que pour la gestion du stress réplicatif et des conflits entre transcription et réplication. Parmi ces protéines, FANCA est retrouvée mutée chez 60% des patients atteints de FA.Dans ce travail, nous avons cherché à investiguer si la voie FANC ou la protéine FANCA étaient impliquées dans le fonctionnement du nucléole ou dans la biogenèse des ribosomes.Nous avons observé que les cellules déficientes en protéine FANCA ont une homéostasie nucléolaire altérée ainsi qu'une synthèse et une maturation des ARNr ralenties. Ces caractéristiques sont indépendantes de la signalisation des dommages de l'ADN mais sont à mettre en lien avec la présence de conflits entre la transcription et la réplication dans le nucléole. Nous avons montré que la déstructuration du nucléole mène à la stabilisation de la protéine p21 par la protéine nucléolaire NPM1. Egalement, nous avons montré que les ribosomes des cellules déficientes en protéine FANCA présentent un déséquilibre de Facteurs Eucaryotes d'Initiation de la traduction (EIFs) et de certaines isoformes de protéines ribosomales, telle que l'augmentation de la protéine RPL22L1, entrainant une baisse de la traduction.En conclusion, ce travail montre que le stress nucléolaire est impliqué dans l'étiologie de la FA, ce qui relie la FA aux autres IMH. Cette observation incite à étudier les relations entre la réponse aux dommages de l'ADN et le stress nucléolaire dans l'apparition de l'insuffisance médullaire. / Inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (iBMFs) group four main syndromes: Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, Dyskeratosis Congenita, Diamond Blackfan anemia and Fanconi anemia (FA), which is the most frequent one. Whereas the pathogenesis of the other iBMFs is linked to ribosomal biogenesis and nucleolar abnormalities, the pathogenesis of FA is considered to be mainly due to misrepaired DNA damage.The FA syndrome is a rare autosomic recessive disorder, which includes developmental defects, cancer predisposition and evolutive haematological alterations. The patients present an early pancytopenia associated with a progressive myelodysplasia that eventually predisposes them to acute myeloid leukemia. Cellular hypersensitivity to crosslinking agents is the main difference between this syndrome and other iBMFs. The pathology is due to homozygous mutations in the FANC-BRCA pathway, that groups more than twenty proteins necessary for interstrand crosslinks (ICls) repair, replication stress response and managing of conflicts between replication and transcription. Among them, the FANCA protein is mutated in 60% of the FA patients.In this work, we asked whether the FANC pathway or the FANCA protein might be involved in the nucleolar homeostasy or in ribosomal biogenesis.We observed that FANCA defective cells have an altered nucleolar homeostasy and a slowed ribosomal rRNA synthesis and processing, independently from DNA damage signalling but related to conflicts between replication and transcription in the nucleolus. We show that the destructuration of the nucleolus can lead to p21 stabilisation by the nucleolar protein NPM1. Also, we show that ribosomes in FANCA deficient cells present a misbalance of Eukaryotic translation Initiation Factors (EIFs), and of some ribosomal proteins isoforms, such as the increase of RPL22L1, leading to a translation slowdown.In conclusion, this study shows that nucleolar stress is involved in FA pathogenesis, which links FA to other iBMFs. This paves the way for the investigation of interplays between DNA damage and nucleolar stress in bone marrow failure onset.

The nucleolus is a plurifunctional organelle with dynamic protein exchange involved in diverse aspects of cell biology. Additionally, the nucleolus has been shown to have a role in the replication of numerous viruses, which includes HIV-1. Several groups have reported HIV-1 vRNA localization within the nucleolus. Moreover, it has been demonstrated the HIV-1 Rev protein localizes to the nucleolus and interacts with nucleolar proteins, including NPM1. Despite evidence for a nucleolar involvement during replication, a functional link has not been demonstrated. I investigated whether introncontaining vRNAs have a Rev-mediated nucleolar localization step prior to export. Furthermore, I examined whether NPM1 mediates Rev nucleolar localization, participates in Rev function, and/or post-transcriptional events during viral replication. I used coupled RNA fluorescence in situhybridization and indirect immunofluorescence to visualize intron-containing vRNA relative to the nucleolus in the absence or presence of Rev expression. An RNAi-based approach was used to examine the role of NPM1 in Rev function and viral replication in cell lines and primary human macrophages. My research findings support a model for a Rev-independent nucleolar localization step of introncontaining vRNA prior to export. Intriguingly, my results also suggest NPM1 does not participate in Rev nucleolar localization or Rev-mediated vRNA export, as previously proposed. Rather, my findings support a novel role for NPM1, the cytoplasmic localization and utilization of a select class of Rev-dependent vRNAs. Collectively, my findings provide novel insight for a functional role of the nucleolus and NPM1 in HIV-1 replication, which enhances our current understanding of HIV-1 biology.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 3 uppsatser.

The nucleus of epidermal keratinocytes (KCs) is a complex and highly compartmentalized organelle, whose structure is markedly changed during terminal differentiation and transition of the genome from a transcriptionally active state seen in the basal and spinous epidermal cells to a fully inactive state in the keratinized cells of the cornified layer. Here, using multicolor confocal microscopy, followed by computational image analysis and mathematical modeling, we demonstrate that in normal mouse footpad epidermis, transition of KCs from basal epidermal layer to the granular layer is accompanied by marked differences in nuclear architecture and microenvironment including the following: (i) decrease in the nuclear volume; (ii) decrease in expression of the markers of transcriptionally active chromatin; (iii) internalization and decrease in the number of nucleoli; (iv) increase in the number of pericentromeric heterochromatic clusters; and (v) increase in the frequency of associations between the pericentromeric clusters, chromosomal territory 3, and nucleoli. These data suggest a role for nucleoli and pericentromeric heterochromatin clusters as organizers of nuclear microenvironment required for proper execution of gene expression programs in differentiating KCs, and provide important background information for further analyses of alterations in the topological genome organization seen in pathological skin conditions, including disorders of epidermal differentiation and epidermal tumors.