Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Emerita Professor Katherine Bushby, Professor Pamela Shaw
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
The commonest cause of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is mutation in the spastin gene. Both the normal function of spastin in the central nervous system and the mechanism by which mutation in spastin causes axonal degeneration are unknown. One hypothesis is that mutant spastin disrupts microtubule dynamics, causing an impairment of organelle transport on the microtubule network, which leads to degeneration in the distal parts of long axons. To study this neuronal and non-neuronal cells were transfected with either wild type or mutant spastin proteins. We demonstrated evidence of a transient interaction of wild-type spastin with microtubules, with resulting disassembly of microtubules, supporting a role for wild-type spastin as a microtubule-severing protein. Mutant spastin demonstrated an abnormal interaction with microtubules, colocalizing with but no longer severing microtubules. The abnormal interaction of mutant spastin with microtubules was demonstrated to be associated with an abnormal perinuclear clustering of mitochondria and peroxisomes, suggestive of an impairment of kinesin-mediated intracellular transport. Our findings indicate that an abnormal interaction of mutant spastin with microtubules, which disrupts organelle transport on the microtubule cytoskeleton, is likely to be the primary disease mechanism in HSP caused by missense mutations in the spastin gene.
Author(s): McDermott CJ, Grierson AJ, Wood JD, Bingley M, Wharton SB, Bushby KMD, Shaw PJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Annals of Neurology
Year: 2003
Volume: 54
Issue: 6
Pages: 748-759
ISSN (print): 0364-5134
ISSN (electronic): 1531-8249
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ana.10757
DOI: 10.1002/ana.10757
PubMed id: 14681884
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
