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Netrin requires focal adhesion kinase and Src family kinases for axon outgrowth and attraction

Abstract

Although netrins are an important family of neuronal guidance proteins, intracellular mechanisms that mediate netrin function are not well understood. Here we show that netrin-1 induces tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins including focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and the Src family kinase Fyn. Blockers of Src family kinases inhibited FAK phosphorylation and axon outgrowth and attraction by netrin. Dominant-negative FAK and Fyn mutants inhibited the attractive turning response to netrin. Axon outgrowth and attraction induced by netrin-1 were significantly reduced in neurons lacking the FAK gene. Our results show the biochemical and functional links between netrin, a prototypical neuronal guidance cue, and FAK, a central player in intracellular signaling that is crucial for cell migration.

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Figure 1: Regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation by netrin-1.
Figure 2: Activation of the Fyn tyrosine kinase by netrin-1.
Figure 3: Formation of protein-protein interaction complexes of DCC with FAK and Fyn.
Figure 4: Inhibition of netrin-induced axon outgrowth by Src family kinase inhibitors.
Figure 8: Inhibition of netrin-induced turning of spinal cord axons by a dominant-negative FAK mutant and a kinase-dead Fyn mutant.
Figure 5: Reduced axonal responses to netrin-1 in FAK mutants.
Figure 6: Axonal outgrowth from dissociated neurons of heterozygous and FAK-null embryos.
Figure 7: Loss of netrin attraction of cortical axons in FAK mutants.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to S. Hanks for FAK phosphorylation site mutants; to J. Cooper, T. Tezuka and T. Yamamoto for Fyn mutants; to W.-C. Xiong and K.-L. Guan for communications prior to publication; and to the National Institutes of Health (CA107193 to Y.R. and NS19090 to L.F.R.), the Klingenstein Foundation and the National Brain Tumor Foundation for support. L.F.R. is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. H.B. was supported by a National Research Service Award fellowship from the NIH.

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Correspondence to Yi Rao.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Control experiment for Fig. 1b. Cortical neurons were treated with the control HEK conditioned medium for 5 min. Tyrosine phosphorylation was examined and was not found to be affected. (JPG 21 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Control experiment for that in Fig. 1h. Control depletion was carried out with six anti-phospho-specific antibodies (against phospho-Pak1/Pak2, phospho-p38 MapK, phospho-ATF-2, phospho-CREB, phospho-GSK 3a/b and phospho-p38) could not reduce the induction of p130 phosphorylation by netrin-1. (JPG 21 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Specificity of each phospho-specific anti-FAK antibody used in Fig. 1j. Wild type FAK and mutants lacking Y397, Y407, Y576/Y577 and Y861 were tagged with the myc epitope and the mutant lacking Y925 was tagged with the HA epitope. They were expressed in HEK cells and pulled down by anti-myc or anti-HA antibodies (bottom row). Each of the precipitated mutant protein was run with the wild type FAK and probed for phosphorylation at specific sites by individual antibodies and shown in separate panels. Of the two panels with 576/577 mutants, the first panel (in the top row) was probed with anti-phospho-576 antibody while the panel in the middle row was probed with anti-phospho-577 antibody. (JPG 44 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 4

Effects of Src kinase inhibitors on attraction of cortical axons by netrin. (a-f) Cortical explants from E15 embryos were co-cultured with HEK aggregates for 16 to 18 hours in the presence of pharmacological reagents before immunostaining with the TuJ1 antibody. The number of axon bundles extended from cortical explants proximally towards the control HEK aggregate is similar to that extended distally (a). The number of proximally projected axon bundles is larger than that of distally projected when cortical explants were co-cultured with HEK aggregates secreting netrin-1 (b). Asymmetric axon outgrowth was inhibited by PP2 (0.2 µM) (c) or SU6656 (f) but not by PP3 (0.2 µM) (d) or DMSO (e). (g) Quantification of axon bundles. Proximal/distal ratios were calculated from the numbers of axon bundles in the proximal part divided by those in the distal part. The P/D ratio are: HEK, 1.1 ± 0.2; Net, 2.1 ± 0.5; Net+PP2, 1.0 ± 0.2; Net+PP3, 2.0 ± 0.3; Net+DMSO, 2.0 ± 0.3; Net+SU6656, 1.1 ± 0.1. The numbers on the top (n=) indicate the numbers of explants tested. The P values for the differences (by Student's t test) are: < 0.001 between control and Net, < 0.001 between Net and Net+PP2, < 0.001 between Net+PP2 and Net+PP3, > 0.1 between control and Net+PP2, and > 0.1 between Net and Net+PP3, < 0.001 between Net+DMSO and Net+SU6656. (h) Quantification of the length of axon bundles. The proximal/distal ratios were calculated from the length of axon bundles in the proximal part divided by those in the distal part. The P/D ratio are: HEK, 1.1 ± 0.7; Net, 4.1 ± 0.7; Net ± PP2, 1.1 ± 0.2; Net ± PP3, 3.9 ± 0.5; Net+DMSO, 4.0 ± 0.9; Net+SU6656, 1.2 ± 0.3. The numbers on the top (n=) indicate the numbers of explants tested. The P values for the differences (by Student's t test) are: < 0.001 between control and Net, < 0.001 between Net and Net+PP2, < 0.001 between Net+PP2 and Net+PP3, > 0.1 between control and Net+PP2, and > 0.1 between Net and Net+PP3, < 0.001 between Net+DMSO and Net+SU6656. HEK, control HEK cells; NET, Netrin-1 secreting HEK cells. (JPG 74 kb)

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Liu, G., Beggs, H., Jürgensen, C. et al. Netrin requires focal adhesion kinase and Src family kinases for axon outgrowth and attraction. Nat Neurosci 7, 1222–1232 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1331

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