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Don EK, Maschirow A, Radford RAW, Scherer NM, Vidal-Itriago A, Hogan A, Maurel C, Formella I, Stoddart JJ, Hall TE, Lee A, Shi B, Cole NJ, Laird AS, Badrock AP, Chung RS, Morsch M. In vivo Validation of Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) to Investigate Aggregate Formation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Mol Neurobiol 2021; 58:2061-2074. [PMID: 33415684 PMCID: PMC8018926 DOI: 10.1007/s12035-020-02238-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Accepted: 11/25/2020] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a form of motor neuron disease (MND) that is characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons within the spinal cord, brainstem, and motor cortex. Although ALS clinically manifests as a heterogeneous disease, with varying disease onset and survival, a unifying feature is the presence of ubiquitinated cytoplasmic protein inclusion aggregates containing TDP-43. However, the precise mechanisms linking protein inclusions and aggregation to neuronal loss are currently poorly understood. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) takes advantage of the association of fluorophore fragments (non-fluorescent on their own) that are attached to an aggregation-prone protein of interest. Interaction of the proteins of interest allows for the fluorescent reporter protein to fold into its native state and emit a fluorescent signal. Here, we combined the power of BiFC with the advantages of the zebrafish system to validate, optimize, and visualize the formation of ALS-linked aggregates in real time in a vertebrate model. We further provide in vivo validation of the selectivity of this technique and demonstrate reduced spontaneous self-assembly of the non-fluorescent fragments in vivo by introducing a fluorophore mutation. Additionally, we report preliminary findings on the dynamic aggregation of the ALS-linked hallmark proteins Fus and TDP-43 in their corresponding nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments using BiFC. Overall, our data demonstrates the suitability of this BiFC approach to study and characterize ALS-linked aggregate formation in vivo. Importantly, the same principle can be applied in the context of other neurodegenerative diseases and has therefore critical implications to advance our understanding of pathologies that underlie aberrant protein aggregation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily K Don
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Alina Maschirow
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Rowan A W Radford
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Natalie M Scherer
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Andrés Vidal-Itriago
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Alison Hogan
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Cindy Maurel
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Isabel Formella
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Jack J Stoddart
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Thomas E Hall
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, QLD, St Lucia, 4072, Australia
| | - Albert Lee
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Bingyang Shi
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Nicholas J Cole
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Angela S Laird
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Andrew P Badrock
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia.
| | - Roger S Chung
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Marco Morsch
- Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia.
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