- Email: [email protected]
The Immune-Mind Connection
Leading Edge
Previews The Immune-Mind Connection Saiyu Hang1 and Jun R. Huh1,2,* 1Department
of Immunology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA Center for Immunological Diseases, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA *Correspondence: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.012 2Evergrande
How does stress promote anxiety? In this issue of Cell, Fan et al. report that immune cells have a direct role in this process. They show that chronic stress promotes mitochondrial fission in CD4+ T cells, causing increased synthesis of xanthine, which acts on the brain and induces anxiety-like behaviors. Exposure to stressful and traumatic events can lead to pathological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression (Hammen, 2005; Pitman et al., 2012). But how does stress lead to changes in brain function and behaviors? Accumulating data both in human and animal models suggest that the immune system plays a critical role in mediating these stress-induced phenotypes. For example, stress stimulates inflammatory immune responses, including the release of cytokines, which in turn are implicated in avoidance behavioral responses (Miller and Raison, 2016). This unexpected connection between stress and the immune response may be rooted in the perilous environments of our ancestors to promote survival, whereas in present day, it may underlie increased anxiety and depression (Raison and Miller, 2013). Consistent with this, treating depression patients with Infliximab, a monoclonal antibody targeting the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), produced significant improvements (Raison et al., 2013). Recent advances in the emerging field of neuroimmunology have also begun to elucidate the mechanisms by which the peripheral immune system interacts with both the peripheral and central nervous systems and influences animal behaviors. In this issue of Cell, Fan et al. (2019) present another provocative model connecting the immune system and anxiety. They demonstrate that changes in the mitochondrial function of CD4+ T cells increase the production of xanthine (a purine base) and result in chronic stress-induced anxietylike behaviors in mice (Figure 1). To induce chronic stress in mice, Fan et al. used an
electric foot shock or a restraint stress model. These manipulations were followed by two behavioral tests to quantify anxietylike behaviors: the open field arena and the elevated plus maze tests (Figure 1). When animals are anxious, they are less likely to venture out to the center of the open field arena or to explore the open arms of the plus maze. Control wild-type (WT) mice exhibited anxiety-like behaviors in both tests following exposure to either stress model. In contrast, Rag1-knockout (KO) mice, which lack adaptive immune T and B cells, did not display anxiety-like behaviors. To address which types immune cells are responsible for stress-induced anxietylike behaviors, they treated WT mice with blocking antibodies to deplete CD4+ or CD8+ T cells. Depleting CD4+, but not CD8+, T cells abrogated anxiety-like behaviors. Conversely, adoptive transfer of CD4+ T cells from electric foot shocktreated, but not from untreated, WT mice into Rag1-KO recipient mice phenocopied the anxiety-like behaviors even without being exposed to stressful conditions, suggesting that CD4+ T cells are both necessary and sufficient for chronic stress-induced anxiety. To explore the mechanisms by which CD4+ T cells mediate such anxiety-like behaviors, Fan et al. performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses on CD4+ T cells isolated from mice exposed to chronic stress. Compared to T cells from control mice, those from stress-exposed mice differentially expressed genes that are closely associated with mitochondria. Furthermore, the authors found both metabolic and structural changes in the mitochondria of CD4+ T cells isolated from stress-exposed mice. To verify a direct role for altered mitochondrial function in
promoting anxiety-like behaviors, Fan et al. took advantage of several genetic approaches known to affect mitochondrial morphology and function. For example, loss of mitoguardin 2 (Miga2) or mitofusin 1/2 (Mfn1/2), genes that promote mitochondrial fusion, led to fragmented mitochondria phenotypes in CD4+ T cells. Intriguingly, adoptive transfer of Miga2deficient CD4+ T cells into Rag1-KO recipient mice is sufficient to produce anxietylike behaviors even though the donor mice were never exposed to chronic stress. Furthermore, selective removal of Miga2 or Mfn1/2 in CD4+ T cells using T cell-specific Cre also produced both fragmented mitochondria and anxiety-like phenotypes. Thus, changes in mitochondrial morphology and function in CD4+ T cells alone can cause anxiety-like behaviors. Further mechanistic clues came from the metabolic profiling of serum samples collected from Miga2-conditional KO (cKO) mice as well as WT mice exposed to chronic stressful conditions. Both analyses found increased levels of xanthine, a product of purine metabolism, in the affected mice. Importantly, treating mice with xanthine produced anxiety-like behaviors, while inhibiting the xanthine synthesis pathway with BCX-1777, a purine nucleoside phosphorylase inhibitor, reversed the anxiety-like behaviors observed in Miga2cKO or WT mice exposed to chronic stress. These data demonstrate that xanthine is a key molecule that influences anxiety-like behaviors. But how does xanthine affect brain function? The authors focused on the amygdala, based on its previous connection to mood-related behaviors and stress responses. Single-cell RNAseq analysis performed with cells isolated
Cell 179, October 31, 2019 ª 2019 Elsevier Inc. 803
from the amygdala revealed high expression of receptors for adenosine (and xanthine), including Adora1, in oligodendrocytes. These results implicate the Adora1 receptor on oligodendrocytes as playing a role in xanthine-induced anxiety-like behaviors. Indeed, a stereotaxic injection of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting Adora1 in the amygdala of Miga2-KO mice not only reduced Adora1 mRNA expression in the amygdala but also prevented the development of anxiety-like behavioral phenotypes. All in all, repeated exposure to stressful conditions resulted in changes in both the function and the morphology of mitochondria in CD4+ T cells, leading to increased levels of xanthine in the sera of affected mice that act on the amygdala to induce anxiety-like behaviors (Figure 1). But how do changes in mitochondrial morphology and metabolism lead to increased xanthine production? The authors noted that T cells from Miga2-cKO mice had decreased expression of genes involved in glycolytic and fatty acid oxidation pathways. By contrast, expression levels of those involved in the purine synthesis pathway such as purine nucleoside phosphorylase 2 (Pnp2) were increased. In addition, the authors found that both Miga2 deficiency and exposure to repeated stress increased protein expression of interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1), a key transcription factor driving expression of various enzymes including Pnp2, needed for xanthine synthesis. Consistent with these findings, removal of Pnp2 or IRF1 in Miga2-deficient T cells abrogated their ability to induce anxiety-like behaviors. Fan et al. identified an intriguing mechanism by which immune cells in the periphery communicate with cells in the brain by producing the purine derivative xanthine and contributing to chronic stress-induced anxiety. However, studies are needed to determine how repeated exposure to stress affects mitochondrial function in T cells. They showed that
Figure 1. Metabolic Changes in CD4+ T Cells Promote Stress-Induced Anxiety Chronic stress elevates serum levels of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), which induces mitochondria-dependent metabolic changes in CD4+ T cells, leading to increased production of xanthine. Xanthine then acts on the brain to produce heightened anxiety.
804 Cell 179, October 31, 2019
increased LTB4 levels correlated with this process, but questions remain as to the mechanisms by which stress is sensed, what cell types respond by producing LTB4, and how increased levels of LTB4 lead to changes in the mitochondrial function in CD4+ T cells. In addition, given the accumulating data suggesting that the gut microbiome contributes to depressive-like symptoms in both mice and humans (Marin et al., 2017; Zheng et al., 2016), it will also be interesting to investigate the modulatory roles of the microbiota in CD4+ T cell-mediated, stress-induced anxiety. Most drugs developed so far to treat anxiety disorders or depression have mainly targeted the function of neurotransmitters. By doing so, such drugs modulate neural function in the brain, but as expected, not all patients are responsive to them. Recent advances in the neuroimmunology field have begun to uncover neuro-modulatory roles of the peripheral immune system in controlling brain function (Choi et al., 2016; Derecki et al., 2010). For those patients whose symptoms of depression stem from a heightened immune system, the elegant work by Fan et al. provides a potential new treatment option: targeting CD4+ T cells to suppress the synthesis of xanthine and modulate neural circuit function in the central nervous system. REFERENCES Choi, G.B., Yim, Y.S., Wong, H., Kim, S., Kim, H., Kim, S.V., Hoeffer, C.A., Littman, D.R., and Huh, J.R. (2016). The maternal interleukin-17a pathway in mice promotes autism-like phenotypes in offspring. Science 351, 933–939. Derecki, N.C., Cardani, A.N., Yang, C.H., Quinnies, K.M., Crihfield, A., Lynch, K.R., and Kipnis, J. (2010). Regulation of learning and memory by meningeal immunity: a key role for IL-4. J. Exp. Med. 207, 1067–1080. Fan, K., Li, Y., Wang, H., Mao, X., Guo, J., Wang, F., Huang, L., Li, Y., Ma, X., Gao, Z., et al. (2019). Stress-Induced Metabolic Disorder in Peripheral CD4+ T Cells Leads to Anxiety-like Behavior. Cell 179, this issue, 864–879. Hammen, C. (2005). Stress and depression. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 1, 293–319. Marin, I.A., Goertz, J.E., Ren, T., Rich, S.S., Onengut-Gumuscu, S., Farber, E., Wu, M., Overall, C.C., Kipnis, J., and Gaultier, A. (2017). Microbiota alteration is associated with the development of stressinduced despair behavior. Sci. Rep. 7, 43859.
Miller, A.H., and Raison, C.L. (2016). The role of inflammation in depression: from evolutionary imperative to modern treatment target. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 16, 22–34.
Raison, C.L., and Miller, A.H. (2013). The evolutionary significance of depression in Pathogen Host Defense (PATHOS-D). Mol. Psychiatry 18, 15–37.
Pitman, R.K., Rasmusson, A.M., Koenen, K.C., Shin, L.M., Orr, S.P., Gilbertson, M.W., Milad, M.R., and Liberzon, I. (2012). Biological studies of post-traumatic stress disorder. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 13, 769–787.
Raison, C.L., Rutherford, R.E., Woolwine, B.J., Shuo, C., Schettler, P., Drake, D.F., Haroon, E., and Miller, A.H. (2013). A randomized controlled trial of the tumor necrosis factor antagonist infliximab for treatment-resistant depression: the role
of baseline inflammatory biomarkers. JAMA Psychiatry 70, 31–41. Zheng, P., Zeng, B., Zhou, C., Liu, M., Fang, Z., Xu, X., Zeng, L., Chen, J., Fan, S., Du, X., et al. (2016). Gut microbiome remodeling induces depressivelike behaviors through a pathway mediated by the host’s metabolism. Mol. Psychiatry 21, 786–796.
Ciliary Doublet Microtubules at Near-Atomic Resolution Gregory J. Pazour1,* and Stephen M. King2,* 1Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Biotech II, Suite 213, 373 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01605, USA 2Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030-3305, USA *Correspondence: [email protected] (G.J.P.), [email protected] (S.M.K.) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.013
The beauty of the eukaryotic cilium has been appreciated since electron microscopy first revealed its 9-fold symmetry. In this issue of Cell, Ma et al. use cryoelectron microscopy and modeling to define doublet microtubules at near-atomic resolution, revealing an intricate array of proteins decorating the inner and outer surfaces.
Eukaryotes make extensive use of cilia and flagella to generate propulsive force and sense the extracellular environment. The motile properties of cilia allow cells to swim through liquid environments or to move fluid over the surface of cells. The sensory functions are highly diverse and include the senses of sight and smell in mammals as well as detection of Hedgehog and other ligands critical to development and tissue homeostasis. In humans, defects in motile cilia result in degenerative lung disease, male infertility, and aberrant left-right patterning. Defects in sensory cilia cause blindness, anosmia, polycystic kidney disease, and a spectrum of structural birth defects affecting almost every organ. The degree to which cilia have been conserved across the eukaryotic kingdom is remarkable, with motile ciliary axonemes in humans and the green alga Chlamydomonas sharing a highly similar arrangement of nine outer doublet micro-
tubules surrounding a pair of singlet microtubules (Figure 1) (Pazour et al., 2006). Sensory-only cilia in mammals and other eukaryotes lack the central pair of singlet microtubules but retain the outer doublets. The outer doublets themselves are composed of a complete A-microtubule built from 13 tubulin protofilaments and an attached partial B-microtubule built from ten protofilaments. In this issue of Cell, structural work from Ma et al. (2019) takes our understanding of doublet microtubule architecture to a new level, illustrating how proteins decorating the protofilaments enable ciliary function. Cilia are highly complex organelles constructed from at least 500 and perhaps over 1,000 unique proteins (Pazour et al., 2005). Many ciliary proteins are anchored onto the outer doublet microtubules where they stabilize the structure, generate force for ciliary beating, and detect and propagate signals perceived
by cilia (Ichikawa et al., 2019; Nicastro et al., 2006; Song et al., 2018). Cilia are typically ten or more microns long and built from a repeating 96 nm structure. Underlying the 96 nm repeat are twelve 8 nm tubulin dimers associated with various dynein motor complexes arrayed in two rows that power ciliary beating and other microtubule-binding proteins. Within each 96 nm axonemal repeat, four outer dynein arms bind with 24 nm periodicity, while the seven inner arm dynein motors, the two radial spokes, the remnant of a third spoke, and the nexin-dynein regulatory complex are patterned at specific sites within the repeat. A long-standing question in the field is how this repeating arrangement is set up and maintained. Ccdc39 (FAP59) and Ccdc40 (FAP172) have been proposed as a molecular ruler that dictates the repeat as these proteins form a 96 nm extended coiled coil that spans the entire repeat length. Furthermore,
Cell 179, October 31, 2019 ª 2019 Elsevier Inc. 805
Previews The Immune-Mind Connection Saiyu Hang1 and Jun R. Huh1,2,* 1Department
of Immunology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA Center for Immunological Diseases, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA *Correspondence: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.012 2Evergrande
How does stress promote anxiety? In this issue of Cell, Fan et al. report that immune cells have a direct role in this process. They show that chronic stress promotes mitochondrial fission in CD4+ T cells, causing increased synthesis of xanthine, which acts on the brain and induces anxiety-like behaviors. Exposure to stressful and traumatic events can lead to pathological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression (Hammen, 2005; Pitman et al., 2012). But how does stress lead to changes in brain function and behaviors? Accumulating data both in human and animal models suggest that the immune system plays a critical role in mediating these stress-induced phenotypes. For example, stress stimulates inflammatory immune responses, including the release of cytokines, which in turn are implicated in avoidance behavioral responses (Miller and Raison, 2016). This unexpected connection between stress and the immune response may be rooted in the perilous environments of our ancestors to promote survival, whereas in present day, it may underlie increased anxiety and depression (Raison and Miller, 2013). Consistent with this, treating depression patients with Infliximab, a monoclonal antibody targeting the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), produced significant improvements (Raison et al., 2013). Recent advances in the emerging field of neuroimmunology have also begun to elucidate the mechanisms by which the peripheral immune system interacts with both the peripheral and central nervous systems and influences animal behaviors. In this issue of Cell, Fan et al. (2019) present another provocative model connecting the immune system and anxiety. They demonstrate that changes in the mitochondrial function of CD4+ T cells increase the production of xanthine (a purine base) and result in chronic stress-induced anxietylike behaviors in mice (Figure 1). To induce chronic stress in mice, Fan et al. used an
electric foot shock or a restraint stress model. These manipulations were followed by two behavioral tests to quantify anxietylike behaviors: the open field arena and the elevated plus maze tests (Figure 1). When animals are anxious, they are less likely to venture out to the center of the open field arena or to explore the open arms of the plus maze. Control wild-type (WT) mice exhibited anxiety-like behaviors in both tests following exposure to either stress model. In contrast, Rag1-knockout (KO) mice, which lack adaptive immune T and B cells, did not display anxiety-like behaviors. To address which types immune cells are responsible for stress-induced anxietylike behaviors, they treated WT mice with blocking antibodies to deplete CD4+ or CD8+ T cells. Depleting CD4+, but not CD8+, T cells abrogated anxiety-like behaviors. Conversely, adoptive transfer of CD4+ T cells from electric foot shocktreated, but not from untreated, WT mice into Rag1-KO recipient mice phenocopied the anxiety-like behaviors even without being exposed to stressful conditions, suggesting that CD4+ T cells are both necessary and sufficient for chronic stress-induced anxiety. To explore the mechanisms by which CD4+ T cells mediate such anxiety-like behaviors, Fan et al. performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses on CD4+ T cells isolated from mice exposed to chronic stress. Compared to T cells from control mice, those from stress-exposed mice differentially expressed genes that are closely associated with mitochondria. Furthermore, the authors found both metabolic and structural changes in the mitochondria of CD4+ T cells isolated from stress-exposed mice. To verify a direct role for altered mitochondrial function in
promoting anxiety-like behaviors, Fan et al. took advantage of several genetic approaches known to affect mitochondrial morphology and function. For example, loss of mitoguardin 2 (Miga2) or mitofusin 1/2 (Mfn1/2), genes that promote mitochondrial fusion, led to fragmented mitochondria phenotypes in CD4+ T cells. Intriguingly, adoptive transfer of Miga2deficient CD4+ T cells into Rag1-KO recipient mice is sufficient to produce anxietylike behaviors even though the donor mice were never exposed to chronic stress. Furthermore, selective removal of Miga2 or Mfn1/2 in CD4+ T cells using T cell-specific Cre also produced both fragmented mitochondria and anxiety-like phenotypes. Thus, changes in mitochondrial morphology and function in CD4+ T cells alone can cause anxiety-like behaviors. Further mechanistic clues came from the metabolic profiling of serum samples collected from Miga2-conditional KO (cKO) mice as well as WT mice exposed to chronic stressful conditions. Both analyses found increased levels of xanthine, a product of purine metabolism, in the affected mice. Importantly, treating mice with xanthine produced anxiety-like behaviors, while inhibiting the xanthine synthesis pathway with BCX-1777, a purine nucleoside phosphorylase inhibitor, reversed the anxiety-like behaviors observed in Miga2cKO or WT mice exposed to chronic stress. These data demonstrate that xanthine is a key molecule that influences anxiety-like behaviors. But how does xanthine affect brain function? The authors focused on the amygdala, based on its previous connection to mood-related behaviors and stress responses. Single-cell RNAseq analysis performed with cells isolated
Cell 179, October 31, 2019 ª 2019 Elsevier Inc. 803
from the amygdala revealed high expression of receptors for adenosine (and xanthine), including Adora1, in oligodendrocytes. These results implicate the Adora1 receptor on oligodendrocytes as playing a role in xanthine-induced anxiety-like behaviors. Indeed, a stereotaxic injection of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting Adora1 in the amygdala of Miga2-KO mice not only reduced Adora1 mRNA expression in the amygdala but also prevented the development of anxiety-like behavioral phenotypes. All in all, repeated exposure to stressful conditions resulted in changes in both the function and the morphology of mitochondria in CD4+ T cells, leading to increased levels of xanthine in the sera of affected mice that act on the amygdala to induce anxiety-like behaviors (Figure 1). But how do changes in mitochondrial morphology and metabolism lead to increased xanthine production? The authors noted that T cells from Miga2-cKO mice had decreased expression of genes involved in glycolytic and fatty acid oxidation pathways. By contrast, expression levels of those involved in the purine synthesis pathway such as purine nucleoside phosphorylase 2 (Pnp2) were increased. In addition, the authors found that both Miga2 deficiency and exposure to repeated stress increased protein expression of interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1), a key transcription factor driving expression of various enzymes including Pnp2, needed for xanthine synthesis. Consistent with these findings, removal of Pnp2 or IRF1 in Miga2-deficient T cells abrogated their ability to induce anxiety-like behaviors. Fan et al. identified an intriguing mechanism by which immune cells in the periphery communicate with cells in the brain by producing the purine derivative xanthine and contributing to chronic stress-induced anxiety. However, studies are needed to determine how repeated exposure to stress affects mitochondrial function in T cells. They showed that
Figure 1. Metabolic Changes in CD4+ T Cells Promote Stress-Induced Anxiety Chronic stress elevates serum levels of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), which induces mitochondria-dependent metabolic changes in CD4+ T cells, leading to increased production of xanthine. Xanthine then acts on the brain to produce heightened anxiety.
804 Cell 179, October 31, 2019
increased LTB4 levels correlated with this process, but questions remain as to the mechanisms by which stress is sensed, what cell types respond by producing LTB4, and how increased levels of LTB4 lead to changes in the mitochondrial function in CD4+ T cells. In addition, given the accumulating data suggesting that the gut microbiome contributes to depressive-like symptoms in both mice and humans (Marin et al., 2017; Zheng et al., 2016), it will also be interesting to investigate the modulatory roles of the microbiota in CD4+ T cell-mediated, stress-induced anxiety. Most drugs developed so far to treat anxiety disorders or depression have mainly targeted the function of neurotransmitters. By doing so, such drugs modulate neural function in the brain, but as expected, not all patients are responsive to them. Recent advances in the neuroimmunology field have begun to uncover neuro-modulatory roles of the peripheral immune system in controlling brain function (Choi et al., 2016; Derecki et al., 2010). For those patients whose symptoms of depression stem from a heightened immune system, the elegant work by Fan et al. provides a potential new treatment option: targeting CD4+ T cells to suppress the synthesis of xanthine and modulate neural circuit function in the central nervous system. REFERENCES Choi, G.B., Yim, Y.S., Wong, H., Kim, S., Kim, H., Kim, S.V., Hoeffer, C.A., Littman, D.R., and Huh, J.R. (2016). The maternal interleukin-17a pathway in mice promotes autism-like phenotypes in offspring. Science 351, 933–939. Derecki, N.C., Cardani, A.N., Yang, C.H., Quinnies, K.M., Crihfield, A., Lynch, K.R., and Kipnis, J. (2010). Regulation of learning and memory by meningeal immunity: a key role for IL-4. J. Exp. Med. 207, 1067–1080. Fan, K., Li, Y., Wang, H., Mao, X., Guo, J., Wang, F., Huang, L., Li, Y., Ma, X., Gao, Z., et al. (2019). Stress-Induced Metabolic Disorder in Peripheral CD4+ T Cells Leads to Anxiety-like Behavior. Cell 179, this issue, 864–879. Hammen, C. (2005). Stress and depression. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 1, 293–319. Marin, I.A., Goertz, J.E., Ren, T., Rich, S.S., Onengut-Gumuscu, S., Farber, E., Wu, M., Overall, C.C., Kipnis, J., and Gaultier, A. (2017). Microbiota alteration is associated with the development of stressinduced despair behavior. Sci. Rep. 7, 43859.
Miller, A.H., and Raison, C.L. (2016). The role of inflammation in depression: from evolutionary imperative to modern treatment target. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 16, 22–34.
Raison, C.L., and Miller, A.H. (2013). The evolutionary significance of depression in Pathogen Host Defense (PATHOS-D). Mol. Psychiatry 18, 15–37.
Pitman, R.K., Rasmusson, A.M., Koenen, K.C., Shin, L.M., Orr, S.P., Gilbertson, M.W., Milad, M.R., and Liberzon, I. (2012). Biological studies of post-traumatic stress disorder. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 13, 769–787.
Raison, C.L., Rutherford, R.E., Woolwine, B.J., Shuo, C., Schettler, P., Drake, D.F., Haroon, E., and Miller, A.H. (2013). A randomized controlled trial of the tumor necrosis factor antagonist infliximab for treatment-resistant depression: the role
of baseline inflammatory biomarkers. JAMA Psychiatry 70, 31–41. Zheng, P., Zeng, B., Zhou, C., Liu, M., Fang, Z., Xu, X., Zeng, L., Chen, J., Fan, S., Du, X., et al. (2016). Gut microbiome remodeling induces depressivelike behaviors through a pathway mediated by the host’s metabolism. Mol. Psychiatry 21, 786–796.
Ciliary Doublet Microtubules at Near-Atomic Resolution Gregory J. Pazour1,* and Stephen M. King2,* 1Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Biotech II, Suite 213, 373 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01605, USA 2Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030-3305, USA *Correspondence: [email protected] (G.J.P.), [email protected] (S.M.K.) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.013
The beauty of the eukaryotic cilium has been appreciated since electron microscopy first revealed its 9-fold symmetry. In this issue of Cell, Ma et al. use cryoelectron microscopy and modeling to define doublet microtubules at near-atomic resolution, revealing an intricate array of proteins decorating the inner and outer surfaces.
Eukaryotes make extensive use of cilia and flagella to generate propulsive force and sense the extracellular environment. The motile properties of cilia allow cells to swim through liquid environments or to move fluid over the surface of cells. The sensory functions are highly diverse and include the senses of sight and smell in mammals as well as detection of Hedgehog and other ligands critical to development and tissue homeostasis. In humans, defects in motile cilia result in degenerative lung disease, male infertility, and aberrant left-right patterning. Defects in sensory cilia cause blindness, anosmia, polycystic kidney disease, and a spectrum of structural birth defects affecting almost every organ. The degree to which cilia have been conserved across the eukaryotic kingdom is remarkable, with motile ciliary axonemes in humans and the green alga Chlamydomonas sharing a highly similar arrangement of nine outer doublet micro-
tubules surrounding a pair of singlet microtubules (Figure 1) (Pazour et al., 2006). Sensory-only cilia in mammals and other eukaryotes lack the central pair of singlet microtubules but retain the outer doublets. The outer doublets themselves are composed of a complete A-microtubule built from 13 tubulin protofilaments and an attached partial B-microtubule built from ten protofilaments. In this issue of Cell, structural work from Ma et al. (2019) takes our understanding of doublet microtubule architecture to a new level, illustrating how proteins decorating the protofilaments enable ciliary function. Cilia are highly complex organelles constructed from at least 500 and perhaps over 1,000 unique proteins (Pazour et al., 2005). Many ciliary proteins are anchored onto the outer doublet microtubules where they stabilize the structure, generate force for ciliary beating, and detect and propagate signals perceived
by cilia (Ichikawa et al., 2019; Nicastro et al., 2006; Song et al., 2018). Cilia are typically ten or more microns long and built from a repeating 96 nm structure. Underlying the 96 nm repeat are twelve 8 nm tubulin dimers associated with various dynein motor complexes arrayed in two rows that power ciliary beating and other microtubule-binding proteins. Within each 96 nm axonemal repeat, four outer dynein arms bind with 24 nm periodicity, while the seven inner arm dynein motors, the two radial spokes, the remnant of a third spoke, and the nexin-dynein regulatory complex are patterned at specific sites within the repeat. A long-standing question in the field is how this repeating arrangement is set up and maintained. Ccdc39 (FAP59) and Ccdc40 (FAP172) have been proposed as a molecular ruler that dictates the repeat as these proteins form a 96 nm extended coiled coil that spans the entire repeat length. Furthermore,
Cell 179, October 31, 2019 ª 2019 Elsevier Inc. 805