A CaMK cascade activates CRE-mediated transcription in neurons of Caenorhabditis elegans.
Calcium (Ca2+) signals regulate a diverse set of cellular responses, from proliferation to muscular contraction and neuro-endocrine secretion. The ubiquitous Ca2+ sensor, calmodulin (CaM), translates changes in local intracellular Ca2+ concentrations into changes in enzyme activities. Among its targets, the Ca2+/CaM-dependent protein kinases I and IV (CaMKs) are capable of transducing intraneuronal signals, and these kinases are implicated in neuronal gene regulation that mediates synaptic plasticity in mammals. Recently, the cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) has been proposed as a target for a CaMK cascade involving not only CaMKI or CaMKIV, but also an upstream kinase kinase that is also CaM regulated (CaMKK). Here, we report that all components of this pathway are coexpressed in head neurons of Caenorhabditis elegans. Utilizing a transgenic approach to visualize CREB-dependent transcription in vivo, we show that this CaMK cascade regulates CRE-mediated transcription in a subset of head neurons in living nematodes.
Kimura
Yoshishige
Y
Department of Functional Genomics, Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
Corcoran
Ethan E
EE
Eto
Koh
K
Gengyo-Ando
Keiko
K
Muramatsu
Masa-Aki
MA
Kobayashi
Ryoji
R
Freedman
Jonathan H
JH
Mitani
Shohei
S
Hagiwara
Masatoshi
M
Means
Anthony R
AR
Tokumitsu
Hiroshi
H
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D015153:Blotting, Western; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D017362:Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005091:Exons; D015723:Gene Library; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010766:Phosphorylation; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D017362:Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D017871:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinases; D002118:Calcium