Drosophila USP5 controls the activation of apoptosis and the Jun N-terminal kinase pathway during eye development

Xiaolan Fan; Qinzhu Huang; Xiaolei Ye; Yi Lin; Yuting Chen; Xinhua Lin; Jia Qu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092250

Drosophila USP5 controls the activation of apoptosis and the Jun N-terminal kinase pathway during eye development

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 18;9(3):e92250. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092250. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Xiaolan Fan¹, Qinzhu Huang¹, Xiaolei Ye¹, Yi Lin¹, Yuting Chen¹, Xinhua Lin¹, Jia Qu¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Optometry and Ophthalmology and Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

The Jun N-terminal kinase pathway plays an important role in inducing programmed cell death (apoptosis) and is activated in a variety of contexts. The deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are proteases regulating the protein stability by ubiquitin-proteasome system. Here, for the first time, we report the phenotypes observed during eye development that are induced by deleting Drosophila USP5 gene, which encodes one of the USP subfamily of DUBs. usp5 mutants displayed defects in photoreceptor differentiation. Using genetic epistasis analysis and molecular markers, we show that most of these phenotypes are caused by the activation of apoptosis and JNK pathway. These data may provide a mechanistic model for understanding the mammalian usp5 gene.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Apoptosis*
Cell Differentiation
Compound Eye, Arthropod / cytology
Compound Eye, Arthropod / enzymology*
Compound Eye, Arthropod / growth & development
Drosophila Proteins / physiology*
Drosophila melanogaster / cytology
Drosophila melanogaster / enzymology*
Drosophila melanogaster / growth & development
Gene Knockout Techniques
JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / metabolism
MAP Kinase Signaling System*
Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate / physiology
Polyubiquitin / metabolism
Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases / physiology*
Ubiquitination

Substances

Drosophila Proteins
Polyubiquitin
JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases
USP5 protein, Drosophila
Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2011CB943900). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.