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CELL BIOLOGY OF THE NEURON Polarity ... - Tavernarakis Lab

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Cell Biology of the Neuron: <strong>Polarity</strong>, Plasticity and Regeneration, Crete 2011<br />

Cell-Contact Induced Eph Receptor Trans-<br />

Endocytosis Activates an SFK Dependent Phagocytic<br />

Pathway<br />

Maria Sakkou, Rüdiger Klein<br />

Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Department of Molecular Neurobiology,<br />

Martinsried, Germany<br />

Cells have self-organizing features that control their behavior in complex tissues.<br />

Ephrins are membrane tethered guidance cues that bind to Eph receptor tyrosine<br />

kinases (RTKs). During development the Eph/ephrin signaling system controls a<br />

large variety of cellular responses including contact-mediated attraction or<br />

repulsion, adhesion or de-adhesion and migration. Moreover, unlike other RTKs,<br />

Eph/ephrin signaling dynamics are regulated by a large number of components<br />

like proteolytic cleavage, trans-endocytosis, bi-directional signaling, higher order<br />

clustering and cis-interactions of Ephs and ephrins. Their relative contribution<br />

though during brain development is not yet known. Ongoing work indicates that<br />

bidirectional endocytosis is a critical regulator of growth cone collapse and in cell<br />

culture is required to convert an otherwise adhesive force provided by the<br />

interaction of the receptors and ligands to a repulsive signal. My aims are to study<br />

the role of endocytosis in Eph/ephrin signaling, to characterize the endocytic<br />

pathways that are activated by Ephs and ephrins and to investigate their relative<br />

functional role. In a candidate approach we undertook we found that although Src<br />

family kinases (SFKs) are phosphorylated and activated downstream of both Eph<br />

receptor and ephrin ligand they are required for ephrin “reverse”, but not Eph<br />

“forward” trans- endocytosis. Furthermore, we show that Src requirement is<br />

exclusive for cell-cell interaction but not for soluble ligand stimulation and that<br />

trafficking of Eph/ephrin complexes require Rab5 activation, actin cytoskeleton<br />

polymerization and PI3K activation. To further assess the functional role of<br />

endocytosis we blocked SFK activation in primary neurons and observed that deattachment<br />

between ephrinB growth cones and EphB2 cells was significantly<br />

slower. Taken together these data indicate that Eph/ephrin complexes are<br />

internalized via a phagocytic –like mechanism and that downstream of ephrin<br />

SFKs activate a novel pathway independent of the phosphotyrosine and PDZ<br />

dependent signaling networks that is required for receptor internalization and cell<br />

de-attachment.<br />

Presented by: Sakkou, Maria<br />

177<br />

Poster No 095<br />

Green Session

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