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- Title
A Genetically Encoded Reporter for Real-Time Imaging of Cofilin-Actin Rods in Living Neurons.
- Authors
Mi, Jianjie; Shaw, Alisa E.; Pak, Chi W.; Walsh, Keifer P.; Minamide, Laurie S.; Bernstein, Barbara W.; Kuhn, Thomas B.; Bamburg, James R.
- Abstract
Filament bundles (rods) of cofilin and actin (1:1) form in neurites of stressed neurons where they inhibit synaptic function. Live-cell imaging of rod formation is hampered by the fact that overexpression of a chimera of wild type cofilin with a fluorescent protein causes formation of spontaneous and persistent rods, which is exacerbated by the photostress of imaging. The study of rod induction in living cells calls for a rod reporter that does not cause spontaneous rods. From a study in which single cofilin surface residues were mutated, we identified a mutant, cofilinR21Q, which when fused with monomeric Red Fluorescent Protein (mRFP) and expressed several fold above endogenous cofilin, does not induce spontaneous rods even during the photostress of imaging. CofilinR21Q-mRFP only incorporates into rods when they form from endogenous proteins in stressed cells. In neurons, cofilinR21Q-mRFP reports on rods formed from endogenous cofilin and induced by all modes tested thus far. Rods have a half-life of 30–60 min upon removal of the inducer. Vesicle transport in neurites is arrested upon treatments that form rods and recovers as rods disappear. CofilinR21Q-mRFP is a genetically encoded rod reporter that is useful in live cell imaging studies of induced rod formation, including rod dynamics, and kinetics of rod elimination.
- Subjects
NEURONS; RETINAL rod photoreceptor cells; FLUORESCENT proteins; CELL membranes; CELL motility; NEURODEGENERATION; CYTOCHEMISTRY
- Publication
PLoS ONE, 2013, Vol 8, Issue 12, p1
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0083609