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Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of endophilin B1 is required for induced autophagy in models of Parkinson's disease

Nature Cell Biology volume 13, pages 568–579 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) is a serine/threonine kinase that is increasingly implicated in various neurodegenerative diseases. Deregulated Cdk5 activity has been associated with neuronal death, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Here we report an unexpected role for Cdk5 in the regulation of induced autophagy in neurons. We have identified endophilin B1 (EndoB1) as a Cdk5 substrate, and show that Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of EndoB1 is required for autophagy induction in starved neurons. Furthermore, phosphorylation of EndoB1 facilitates EndoB1 dimerization and recruitment of UVRAG (UV radiation resistance-associated gene). More importantly, Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of EndoB1 is essential for autophagy induction and neuronal loss in models of Parkinson’s disease. Our findings not only establish Cdk5 as a critical regulator of autophagy induction, but also reveal a role for Cdk5 and EndoB1 in the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease through modulating autophagy.

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Figure 1: EndoB1 is a substrate of Cdk5/p35.
Figure 2: Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of EndoB1 is required for starvation-induced autophagy in neurons.
Figure 3: Thr 145 phosphorylation of EndoB1 does not affect its lipid binding and co-localization with Atg5.
Figure 4: Cdk5-mediated Thr 145 phosphorylation of EndoB1 regulates its dimerization and interaction with UVRAG/Beclin 1.
Figure 5: Cdk5-mediated Thr 145 phosphorylation of EndoB1 is involved in autophagy triggered by MPTP.
Figure 6: Thr 145 phosphorylation of EndoB1 by Cdk5 contributes to α-synucleinA53T mutant-induced autophagy.
Figure 7: Cdk5-mediated Thr 145 phosphorylation of EndoB1 is required for MPP+- and α-synucleinA53T mutant-induced neuronal death.
Figure 8: Proposed model for the role of Cdk5 and EndoB1 in induced autophagy and neuronal death.

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  • 21 April 2011

    In the version of this article initially published online and in print, there were some errors in Fig. 3b. These errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A. B. Kulkarni (National Institutes of Health, USA) and T. Curran (St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA) for the Cdk5-knockout mice. p35-knockout mice were provided by L. H. Tsai (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA). We thank T. Yoshimori (Osaka University, Japan) for the mRFP–LC3 construct, V. M. Y. Lee (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, USA) for the SNL-1 antibody and wild-type α-synuclein and α-synucleinA53T constructs and J. Yuan (Harvard Medical School) for the pcDNA3-Beclin 1 construct. We thank J. Li, G. Ke, W. Y. Fu, K. Cheng, J. Wan, Y. P. Ng, V. Lee and A. Lai for technical assistance, and members of the Ip laboratory for discussions. This work was supported in part by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (HKUST 661007, 661109, 660309, 660210, 1/06C and 6/CRF/08), the Area of Excellence Scheme of the University Grants Committee (AoE/B-15/01) and the Hong Kong Jockey Club. N.Y.I. and Z.H.C. were recipients of the Croucher Foundation Senior Research Fellowship and Croucher Foundation Fellowship, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Alan S. L. Wong, Rebecca H. K. Lee, Anthony Y. Cheung, Zelda H. Cheung & Nancy Y. Ip

  2. Molecular Neuroscience Center, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Alan S. L. Wong, Rebecca H. K. Lee, Anthony Y. Cheung, Zelda H. Cheung & Nancy Y. Ip

  3. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Alan S. L. Wong, Rebecca H. K. Lee, Anthony Y. Cheung, Zelda H. Cheung & Nancy Y. Ip

  4. Department of Anatomy, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Patrick K. Yeung & Sookja K. Chung

  5. Research Centre of Heart, Brain, Hormone and Healthy Aging, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Sookja K. Chung

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Contributions

A.S.L.W., R.H.K.L., A.Y.C. and P.K.Y. carried out the experiments. A.S.L.W., R.H.K.L., A.Y.C., P.K.Y., Z.H.C. and N.Y.I. planned the studies, designed the experiments and interpreted the results. S.K.C., Z.H.C. and N.Y.I. provided reagents and resources. A.S.L.W., Z.H.C. and N.Y.I. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zelda H. Cheung or Nancy Y. Ip.

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Wong, A., Lee, R., Cheung, A. et al. Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of endophilin B1 is required for induced autophagy in models of Parkinson's disease. Nat Cell Biol 13, 568–579 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2217

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