Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by the death of motor neurons, generally leading to paralysis and death within 3-5 years of onset. Over 50 different mutations in the gene encoding FUS/TLS (or FUS) will result in ALS, accounting for ~4% of all inherited cases. FUS is a multifunctional protein with important functions in DNA/RNA processing and stress response. How these mutations affect the structure or function of FUS protein and ultimately cause ALS is not known. The fact that mutations cause the protein to mislocalize from the nucleus to the cytoplasm of cells suggests that ALS pathogenesis may occur through a loss of nuclear function, gain of toxic cytoplasmic function, or both. Several FUS knockout animal models have been utilized for investigating a loss of function hypothesis and show phenotypes such as early lethality, reduced lifespan, and locomotor defects. To uncover cellular pathways affected by loss of FUS function, I have characterized the knockdown of FUS in a motor neuron-like cell line, NSC-34. In NSC-34 cells, the depletion of FUS severely impacts cellular proliferation and potentially causes increased levels of DNA damage. A quantitative proteomics analysis performed on cells undergoing various degrees of FUS knockdown revealed protein expression changes for known RNA targets of FUS, consistent with a loss of FUS function with respect to RNA processing. Proteins that changed in expression as a function of FUS knockdown were associated with vii multiple processes, some of which influence cell proliferation including cell-cycle regulation, cytoskeletal organization, oxidative stress and energy homeostasis. Importantly, cellular proliferation could be rescued by the re-expression of FUS and by treatment with the small-molecule, rolipram, indicative of potential therapeutic approaches. Collectively, the work presented in this dissertation demonstrates the importance of FUS for cell health and homeostasis, is suggestive of a role for FUS in DNA damage repair and identifies additional cellular pathways influenced by FUS depletion. Overall, this work provides mechanistic insight into ALS pathogenesis through loss of FUS/TLS function.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by preferential motor neuron death in the brain and spinal cord. The rapid disease progression results in death due to respiratory failure, typically within 3-5 years after disease onset. While ~90% of cases occur sporadically, remaining 10% of ALS cases show familial inheritance, and the number of genes linked to ALS has increased dramatically over the past decade. FUS/TLS (Fused in Sarcoma/ Translocated to liposarcoma) is a nucleic acid binding protein that may regulate several cellular functions, including RNA splicing, transcription, DNA damage repair and microRNA biogenesis. More than 50 mutations in the FUS gene are linked to 4% of familial ALS, and many of these may disrupt the nuclear localization signal, leading to variable amounts of FUS accumulation in the cytoplasm. However, the mechanism by which FUS mutants cause motor neuron death is still unknown. The studies presented in this dissertation focused on investigating the properties of FUS mutants in the absence and presence of stress conditions. We first examined how ALS-linked FUS mutants behaved in response to imposed stresses in both cell culture and zebrafish models of ALS. We found that FUS mutants were prone to accumulate in stress granules in proportion to their degree of cytoplasmic mislocalization under conditions of oxidative stress, ER stress, and heat shock. However, many FUS missense mutants are retained predominantly in the nucleus, and this suggested the possibility that these mutants might also perturb one or more nuclear functions. In a human cell line expressing FUS variants and in human fibroblasts from an ALS patient, mutant FUS expression was associated with enlarged promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) under basal condition. Upon oxidative insult with arsenic trioxide (ATO), PML-NBs in control cells increased acutely in size and were turned over within 12-24 h, as expected. However, PML-NBs in FUS mutant cells did not progress through the expected turnover but instead continued to enlarge over 24 h. We also observed a persistent accumulation of the transcriptional repressor Daxx and the 11S proteasome regulator in association with these enlarged PML-NBs. Furthermore, the peptidase activities of the 26S proteasome were decreased in FUS mutant cells without any changes in the expression of proteasome subunits. These results demonstrate that FUS mutant expression may alter cellular stress responses as manifested by (i) accumulation of mutant FUS into stress granules and (ii) inhibition of PML-NB dynamics. These findings suggest a novel nuclear pathology specific to mutant FUS expression that may perturb nuclear homeostasis and thereby contribute to ALS pathogenesis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. ALS is typically adult onset and is characterized by rapidly progressive loss of both upper and lower motor neurons that leads to death usually within 3-5 years. About 90% of all the cases are sporadic with no family history while the remaining 10% are familial cases with mutations in several genes including SOD1, FUS/TLS, TDP43 and C9ORF72. FUS/TLS (Fused in Sarcoma/Translocated in Liposarcoma or FUS) is an RNA/DNA binding protein that is involved in multiple cellular functions including DNA damage repair, transcription, mRNA splicing, RNA transport and stress response. More than 40 mutations have now been identified in FUS that account for about 5% of all the familial cases of ALS. However, the exact mechanism by which FUS causes ALS is unknown. While significant progress has been made in understanding the disease mechanism and identifying therapeutic strategies, several questions still remain largely unknown. The work presented here aims at understanding the normal functions of FUS as well as the pathogenic mechanisms by which it leads to disease. Several studies showed the association of mutant-FUS with structures made up of RNA and proteins, called stress granules that form under various stress conditions. However, little is known about the role of endogenous FUS under stress conditions. I have shown that under hyperosmolar conditions, the predominantly nuclear FUS translocates into the cytoplasm and incorporates into stress granules. The response is specific to hyperosmolar stress because FUS remains nuclear under other stress conditions tested, such as oxidative stress, ER stress and heat shock. The response of FUS is rapid, and cells with reduced FUS levels are susceptible to the hyperosmolar stress, indicating a pro-survival role for FUS. In addition to investigating the functions of endogenous wild-type (WT) FUS, the work presented also focuses on identifying the pathogenic mechanism(s) of FUS variants. Using various biochemical techniques, I have shown that ALS-causing FUS variants are misfolded compared to the WT protein. Furthermore, in a squid axoplasm based vesicle motility assay, the FUS variants inhibit fast axonal transport (FAT) in a p38 MAPK dependent manner, indicating a role for the kinase in mutant-FUS mediated disease pathogenesis. Analysis of human ALS patient samples indicates higher levels of total and phospho p38, supporting the notion that aberrant regulation of p38 MAPK is involved in ALS. The results presented in this dissertation 1) support a novel prosurvival role for FUS under hyperosmolar stress conditions and, 2) demonstrate that protein misfolding and aberrant kinase activation contribute to ALS pathogenesis by FUS variants.

During stress, eukaryotes regulate protein synthesis in part through formation of cytoplasmic, non-membrane-bound complexes called stress granules (SGs). SGs transiently store signaling proteins and stalled translational complexes in response to stress stimuli (e.g. oxidative insult, DNA damage, temperature shifts and ER dysfunction). The functional outcome of SGs is proper translational regulation and signaling, allowing cells to overcome stress. The fatal motor neuron disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) develops in an age-related manner and is marked by progressive neuronal death, with cytoplasmic protein aggregation, excitotoxicity and increased oxidative stress as major hallmarks. Fused in Sarcoma/Translocated in Liposarcoma (FUS) is an RNA-binding protein mutated in ALS with roles in RNA and DNA processing. Most ALS-associated FUS mutations cause FUS to aberrantly localize in the cytoplasm due to a disruption in the nuclear localization sequence. Intriguingly, pathological inclusions in human FUSALS cases contain aggregated FUS as well as several SG-associated proteins. Further, cytoplasmic mutant FUS incorporates into SGs, which increases SG volume and number, delays SG assembly, accelerates SG disassembly, and alters SG dynamics. I posit that mutant FUS association with stress granules is a toxic gain-of-function in ALS that alters the function of SGs by interaction with SG components. Here, I show that mutant FUS incorporates in to SGs via its Cterminal RGG motifs, the methylation of which is not required for this localization. Further, I identify protein interactions specific to full-length mutant FUS under stress conditions that are potentially capable of interacting with FUS in SGs. Finally, I demonstrate a potential change in the protein composition of SGs upon incorporation of mutant FUS. These findings advance the field of ALS and SG biology, thereby providing groundwork for future investigation.