[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

Poster
231. Dendrite Growth and Branching: Signaling
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 231.12/B25
Topic: A.04.i. Dendritic growth and branching
Title: Vertebrate dpy-19 homologue, mdpy-19-1, regulates neuronal morphology
Authors: *D. DELAUNAY 1 , L. A. KING 2 , A. FENSTERMAKER 1 , Y. ZOU 1 ;
1 UCSD, San Diego, CA; 2 Univ. of Chicago, chicago, IL
Abstract: In Caenorhabditis elegans, the dpy-19 gene is required for the appropriate polarization
of Q neuroblasts, hallmarked by a cellular process pointing towards the direction of their
subsequent migration along the anterior-posterior axis (Honigberg and Kenyon, 2000). We
cloned three mouse homologs of C. elegans dpy-19 gene (mdpy-19-1, -2 and -3) and focused our
studies on mdpy-19-1, the most abundant one in the embryonic cortex. Mdpy-19-1 encodes a 680
amino acid protein with multiple transmembrane domains and is expressed in the cortical plate
during the neurogenic period. By immunostaining in dissociated neurons and sections of
embryonic brain, we show that mDPY-19-1 is enriched in a perinuclear region in cortical
neurons that partially overlaps with the endoplasmic reticulum and the microtubule cytoskeleton.
When overexpressed into COS7 cells, mdpy-19-1 changed the cell morphology. COS7 cells
acquire thin and elongated processes. Conversely, preliminary data indicate that mdpy-19-1
downregulation by RNAi in vitro reduces the length and arborization of the neuronal processes
in cultured cortical neurons. Together, these data suggest that the vertebrate mDPY-19-1 protein
may play a conserved role in cell polarization for proper differentiation and/or maintenance of
cortical neurites.
Disclosures: D. Delaunay, None; L.A. King, None; A. Fenstermaker, None; Y. Zou, None.
Poster
231. Dendrite Growth and Branching: Signaling
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 231.13/B26
Topic: A.04.i. Dendritic growth and branching