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<p dir="ltr">Primary cilia are hair-like structures found on nearly all mammalian cell types, including cells in the developing and adult brain. Cilia establish a unique signaling compartment for cells. For example, a diverse set of receptors and signaling proteins localize within cilia to regulate many physiological and developmental pathways including the Hh pathway. Defects in cilia structure, protein localization, or cilia function lead to genetic disorders called ciliopathies, which present with various clinical features including several neurodevelopmental phenotypes and hyperphagia associated obesity. Despite their dysfunction being implicated in several disease states, understanding their roles in CNS development and signaling has proven challenging. I hypothesize that dynamic changes to ciliary protein composition contributes to this challenge and may reflect unrecognized diversity of CNS cilia. The proteins ARL13B and ADCY3 are established ciliary proteins in the brain and assessing their localization is often used in the field to visualize cilia. ARL13B is a regulatory GTPase important for regulating cilia structure, protein trafficking, and Hh signaling, while ADCY3 is a ciliary adenylyl cyclase thought to be involved in ciliary GPCR singaling. Here, I examine the ciliary localization of ARL13B and ADCY3 in the perinatal and adult mouse brain by defining changes in the proportion of cilia enriched for ARL13B and ADCY3 depending on brain region and age. Furthermore, I identify distinct lengths of cilia within specific brain regions of male and female mice. As mice age, ARL13B cilia become relatively rare in many brain regions, including the hypothalamic feeding centers, while ADCY3 becomes a prominent cilia marker. It is important to understand the endogenous localization patterns of these proteins throughout development and under different physiological conditions as these common cilia markers may be more dynamic than initially expected. Understanding regional and development associated cilia signatures and physiological condition cilia dynamic changes in the CNS may reveal molecular mechanisms associated with ciliopathy clinical features such as obesity.</p>

BACKGROUND:Primary cilia are microtubule-based organelles that protrude from the cell surface. Primary cilia play a critical role in development and disease through regulation of signaling pathways including the Hedgehog pathway. Recent mouse models have also linked ciliary dysfunction to cancer. However, little is known about the role of primary cilia in breast cancer development. Primary cilia expression was characterized in cancer cells as well as their surrounding stromal cells from 86 breast cancer patients by counting cilia and measuring cilia length. In addition, we examined cilia expression in normal epithelial and stromal cells from reduction mammoplasties as well as histologically normal adjacent tissue for comparison.RESULTS:We observed a statistically significant decrease in the percentage of ciliated cells on both premalignant lesions as well as in invasive cancers. This loss of cilia does not correlate with increased proliferative index (Ki67-positive cells). However, we did detect rare ciliated cancer cells present in patients with invasive breast cancer and found that these express a marker of basaloid cancers that is associated with poor prognosis (Cytokeratin 5). Interestingly, the percentage of ciliated stromal cells associated with both premalignant and invasive cancers decreased when compared to stromal cells associated with normal tissue. To understand how cilia may be lost during cancer development we analyzed the expression of genes required for ciliogenesis and/or ciliary function and compared their expression in normal versus breast cancer samples. We found that expression of ciliary genes were frequently downregulated in human breast cancers.CONCLUSIONS:These data suggest that primary cilia are lost early in breast cancer development on both the cancer cells and their surrounding stromal cells.

<p>Primary cilia are evolutionarily conserved, acetylated microtubule-based organelles that transduce mechanical and chemical signals. Primary cilium assembly is tightly controlled and its deregulation causes a spectrum of human diseases. Formation of primary cilium is a collaborative effort of multiple cellular machineries, including microtubule, actin network and membrane trafficking. How cells coordinate these components to construct the primary cilia remains unclear. In this dissertation research, we utilized a combination of cell biology, biochemistry and light microscopy technologies to tackle the enigma of primary cilia formation, with particular focus on isoform-specific roles of non-muscle myosin II family members. We found that myosin IIB (Myh10) is required for cilium formation. In contrast, myosin IIA (Myh9) suppresses cilium formation. In Myh10 deficient cells, Myh9 inactivation significantly restores cilia formation. Myh10 antagonizes Myh9 and increases actin dynamics, permitting pericentrosomal preciliary complex formation required for cilium assembly. Importantly, Myh10 is upregulated upon serum starvation-induced ciliogenesis and this induction requires Atat1/Mec-17, the microtubule acetyltransferase. Our findings suggest that Atat1/Mec17-mediated microtubule acetylation is coupled to Myh10 induction, whose accumulation overcomes the Myh9-dependent actin cytoskeleton, thereby activating cilium formation. Thus, Atat1/Mec17 and myosin II coordinate microtubules and the actin cytoskeleton to control primary cilium biogenesis.</p> / Dissertation

Résumé confidentiel / Confidential abstract

Résumé confidentiel / Confidential abstract

Le cil primaire est une antenne sensorielle présente à la surface de la plupart des cellules qui contrôle des voies de signalisation clés au cours du développement et de l’homéostasie tissulaire. Des défauts de formation ou de fonctionnement des cils sont responsables de maladies génétiques complexes appelées ciliopathies. La néphronophtise (NPH) est une ciliopathie caractérisée par une néphropathie tubulo-interstitielle chronique évoluant généralement vers l’insuffisance rénale terminale (IRT) avant l’âge adulte. La NPH peut être isolée ou associée à des signes extra-rénaux tels que la rétinite pigmentaire et des défauts du squelette permettant de définir des syndromes comme celui de Saldino-Mainzer (MZSDS). La NPH est une maladie à transmission autosomique récessive très hétérogène sur le plan génétique et les protéines codées par les gènes identifiés ont quasiment toutes été impliquées dans des fonctions ciliaires. Le séquençage d’exome de patients, ciblant plus de 1300 gènes ciliaires (ciliome), a permis de mettre en évidence des mutations dans deux nouveaux gènes candidats pour la NPH : CEP83 et TEKT1. Mon travail de thèse a consisté à caractériser l’effet des mutations et à valider leur implication dans les phénotypes des patients. CEP83 a été retrouvé muté chez plusieurs patients non-apparentés présentant une NPH avec IRT précoce (< 5 ans). CEP83 est un composant des appendices distaux du centriole père qui joue un rôle clé dans les étapes précoces de la formation du cil. J’ai montré que les mutations identifiées entraînaient une désorganisation des appendices distaux qui pourrait expliquer les défauts de ciliogénèse observés dans les fibroblastes et les biopsies rénales de patients. Ces résultats ont permis de démontrer l’implication d’une nouvelle protéine centriolaire dans la physiopathologie des formes sévères de NPH. TEKT1 présente des mutations hétérozygotes composites chez un patient ayant un tableau clinique complexe associant un MZSDS et une dyskinésie ciliaire primitive (PCD) due à des défauts de cils motiles. Une analyse génétique détaillée a mis en évidence des mutations sévères dans un second gène, WDR19, déjà caractérisé dans les formes de NPH associées à des défauts osseux. TEKT1 code la protéine Tektine-1, un membre encore non caractérisé de la famille des tektines impliquées dans les cils motiles. L’analyse de cellules nasales multiciliées a montré que Tektine-1 était localisée le long de l’axoneme des cils motiles contrôles et absent des cils des cellules du patient qui présentaient aussi des anomalies sévères de battement. En parallèle, des défauts de ciliogénèse, typiques de mutations de WDR19, ont été observés dans les fibroblastes du patient. Ces résultats suggèrent que ce phénotype complexe est dû aux effets complémentaires des mutations des deux gènes TEKT1 et WDR19, responsables des défauts dans les cils motiles et primaires, respectivement. / The primary cilium is a sensory antenna present on the surface of most of the cells. It controls key signaling pathways during development and tissue homeostasis. Defects in cilia growth or activity are responsible for complex genetic diseases called ciliopathies. Nephronophthisis (NPH) is a ciliopathy characterized by chronic tubulointerstitial nephritis which usually progresses to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) before adulthood. NPH may be isolated or associated with extra-renal defects such as retinitis pigmentosa and skeleton involvement. The combination of these symptoms defines syndromes such as Saldino-Mainzer (MZSDS). NPH is an autosomal recessive disorder highly genetically heterogeneous and almost all of proteins encoded by the identified genes have been involved in ciliary function. The exome sequencing in patients, targeting up to 1300 ciliary genes (ciliome), highlighted new mutations in 2 NPH candidate genes: CEP83 and TEKT1. My work was to characterize the effects of the mutations and validate their involvement in patient phenotypes. CEP83 was found mutated in several unrelated patients with early-onset of NPH (IRT<5 years). CEP83 is a component of distal appendages on the mother centriole which play a crucial role in the early steps of cilia formation. I have shown that the identified mutations perturbed the distal appendages formation which might explain the defects in ciliogenesis observed in fibroblasts and kidney biopsies from patients. These results have demonstrated the involvement of a new centriolar protein in the pathophysiology of NPH severe forms. TEKT1 presents compound heterozygous mutations in a patient with a complex phenotype combining a MZSDS and primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) due to defects in motile cilia. The genetic analysis showed mutations in a second gene, WDR19, already characterized in NPH associated with bone defects. TEKT1 encodes the Tektin-1 protein, an uncharacterized member of the tektin family involved in motile cilia. The nasal multiciliated cells analysis showed that Tektin-1 was localized along the axoneme of control motile cilia and absent from the cilia in patient cells, which also had severe beating impairment. In parallel, defects in ciliogenesis, typical of WDR19 mutations, were observed in the fibroblasts from the patient. These results suggest that this dual ciliary phenotype is rather due to the additional effect of mutations in both TEKT1 and WDR19, responsible for the defects in motile and primary cilia, respectively.

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare genetic disease that causes retinal degradation, obesity, kidney dysfunction, polydactyly, and other cilium-related disorders. To date, more than 20 BBS genes, whose mutants cause BBS phenotypes, have been identified, and eight of those (BBS1-2, 4-5, 7-9, and 18) are known to form the BBSome complex. Recent studies have revealed that the BBSome is closely involved in the trafficking of signaling proteins in the primary cilium. Mutations in BBS genes are highly pathogenic because trafficking in the primary cilium is not fully functional when BBS mutations impair assembly of the BBSome. However, the functional links between onset of BBS and BBSome assembly are not well understood. To address this gap in knowledge, we examined the structure of a BBSome assembly intermediate, the BBSome core complex (BBS2, 7, and 9). We employed a combination of chemical crosslinking coupled with mass spectrometry (XL-MS) and electron microscopy (EM) to determine the structure. We applied this structural information to BBS mutations in the core complex to understand how these mutations might cause the disease. These results provide the first structural model of the BBSome core complex and give insight into the molecular basis of Bardet-Biedl syndrome. We have also investigated the mechanism of assembly of the two mTOR kinase complexes (mTORC1 and 2). mTOR is a master regulator of cell metabolism, growth and proliferation. As such, mTOR is a high-value drug target. We investigated the mechanism of assembly of these mTOR complexes and found that the cytosolic chaperonin CCT contributes to mTOR signaling by assisting in the folding of mLST8 and Raptor, components of mTORC1 and mTORC2. To understand the function of CCT in mTOR complex assembly at the molecular level, we have isolated the mLST8-CCT complex and performed a structural analysis using chemical cross-linking couple with mass spectrometry (XL-MS) and cryogenic EM. We found that mLST8 binds CCT deep in its folding cavity, making specific contacts with the CCTα and γ subunits and forming a near-native β-propeller conformation. This information can be used to develop new therapeutics that regulate mTOR activity by controlling mTOR complex assembly.

Prostate and breast cancer are among the most commonly diagnosed cancers and leading causes of cancer-related deaths in men and women worldwide. It is therefore evident that enhanced understanding of tumorigenesis is required to improve diagnostic tools, improve prognostics and identify novel therapeutic targets. The goal of this dissertation was to elucidate the role of primary cilia in prostate and breast cancer. Little is known about the role primary cilia may play in these cancers. Primary cilia are microtubule-based organelles which aid in sensing the extracellular environment and participate in signal transduction. Important developmental signaling pathways, such as Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt signaling pathways, involve cilia. These pathways have also been implicated in prostate and breast cancer. In this work, we demonstrate that cilia are lost through prostate cancer progression. The few remaining cilia on prostate cancers appeared to be dysfunctional, as assessed by quantifying cilia lengths, an indirect measure of functionality. We also investigated a link between the observed cilia loss and canonical Wnt signaling in prostate cancers. Primary cilia have been determined to have a suppressive role in Wnt signaling, therefore we predicted loss of cilia to correlate with increased Wnt signaling. A link between cilia loss or shortened cilia and activated Wnt signaling was suggested in a subset of prostate cancers. Our lab has established that cilia are similarly lost in breast cancer. These data suggested the hypothesis that cilia may act as tumor suppressor organelles in the prostate and breast. To test this hypothesis, we knocked down cilia in an oncogenic mammary mouse model and assessed changes in tumor growth and characteristics. We observed enhanced tumor growth with cilia loss. The data supports the hypothesis that primary cilia may be playing a tumor suppressor role in the prostate and breast, and provides promising avenues for identifying novel therapeutic approaches for cancer patients.