Frei Dominik Michael, Hodneland Erlend, Rios-Mondragon Ivan, Burtey Anne, Neumann Beate, Bulkescher Jutta, Schölermann Julia, Pepperkok Rainer, Gerdes Hans-Hermann, Kögel Tanja
Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Jonas Lies Vei 91, N-5009 Bergen, Norway.
Advanced Light Microscopy Facility, European Laboratory of Molecular Biology (EMBL), Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2015 Aug 14;5:12879. doi: 10.1038/srep12879.
Contact-dependent intercellular transfer (codeIT) of cellular constituents can have functional consequences for recipient cells, such as enhanced survival and drug resistance. Pathogenic viruses, prions and bacteria can also utilize this mechanism to spread to adjacent cells and potentially evade immune detection. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism underlying this intercellular transfer process. Here, we present a novel microscopy-based screening method to identify regulators and cargo of codeIT. Single donor cells, carrying fluorescently labelled endocytic organelles or proteins, are co-cultured with excess acceptor cells. CodeIT is quantified by confocal microscopy and image analysis in 3D, preserving spatial information. An siRNA-based screening using this method revealed the involvement of several myosins and small GTPases as codeIT regulators. Our data indicates that cellular protrusions and tubular recycling endosomes are important for codeIT. We automated image acquisition and analysis to facilitate large-scale chemical and genetic screening efforts to identify key regulators of codeIT.
细胞成分的接触依赖性细胞间转移(codeIT)可对受体细胞产生功能影响,如增强存活能力和耐药性。致病性病毒、朊病毒和细菌也可利用这一机制传播至相邻细胞,并可能逃避免疫检测。然而,对于这种细胞间转移过程背后的分子机制,我们知之甚少。在此,我们提出一种基于显微镜的新型筛选方法,以鉴定codeIT的调节因子和货物。携带荧光标记的内吞细胞器或蛋白质的单个供体细胞与过量的受体细胞共培养。通过共聚焦显微镜和三维图像分析对codeIT进行定量,保留空间信息。使用该方法进行的基于小干扰RNA的筛选揭示了几种肌球蛋白和小GTP酶作为codeIT调节因子的参与情况。我们的数据表明,细胞突起和管状循环内体对codeIT很重要。我们实现了图像采集和分析的自动化,以促进大规模化学和遗传筛选工作,从而鉴定codeIT的关键调节因子。