title: Adenomatous polyposis coli regulates axon arborization and cytoskeleton organization via its N-terminus.
abstract: Conditional deletion of APC leads to marked disruption of cortical development and to excessive axonal branching of cortical neurons. However, little is known about the cell biological basis of this neuronal morphological regulation. Here we show that APC deficient cortical neuronal growth cones exhibit marked disruption of both microtubule and actin cytoskeleton. Functional analysis of the different APC domains revealed that axonal branches do not result from stabilized β-catenin, and that the C-terminus of APC containing microtubule regulatory domains only partially rescues the branching phenotype. Surprisingly, the N-terminus of APC containing the oligomerization domain and the armadillo repeats completely rescues the branching and cytoskeletal abnormalities. Our data indicate that APC is required for appropriate axon morphological development and that the N-terminus of APC is important for regulation of the neuronal cytoskeleton.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology and Neuroscience Center, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Youjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Woo-Yang
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Snider
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D025601:Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D025601:Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Protein; D051176:beta Catenin