mab-7 encodes a novel transmembrane protein that orchestrates sensory ray morphogenesis in C. elegans

摘要

ThetaperedsensoryraysofthemaleemCaenorhabditiselegans/emareimportantforsuccessfulmale/hermaphroditecopulation.Agroupofemram/em(raymorphologyabnormal)genesencodingmodifyingenzymesandtransmembraneproteinhavebeenreportedaskeyregulatorscontrollingraymorphogenesis.Herewereportthecharacterizationofanothercomponentessentialforthismorphogeneticprocessencodedbyemmab-7/em.Thisgeneisactiveinthehypodermis,structuralcells,thebodyseamandseveralheadneurons.ItencodesanovelproteinwithahydrophobicregionattheN-terminus,anEGF-likemotif,anShKTmotifandalongC-terminaltail.AllthesedomainsareshowntobecriticaltoMAB-7activityexcepttheEGF-likedomain,whichappearstoberegulatoryanddispensable.MAB-7isshowntobeatypeIImembraneprotein,tetheredonthecellsurfacebytheN-terminaltransmembranedomainwiththeremainderoftheproteinexposedtotheextracellularmatrix.Sinceectopicemmab-7/emexpressioninanyraycellorevenintouchneuronsofnon-raylineagecanrescuethemutantphenotype,emmab-7/emisprobablyactingnon-autonomously.Itmayfacilitateintercellularcommunicationamongraycellstoaugmentnormalraymorphogenesis./p/div