Venditti Massimo, Fasano Chiara, Santillo Alessandra, Aniello Francesco, Minucci Sergio
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale, Sez, Fisiologia Umana e Funzioni Biologiche Integrate, Università degli studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Via Costantinopoli, 16, 80138 Napoli, Italy.
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Ambientali, Biologiche e Farmaceutiche, Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Caserta, Italy.
C R Biol. 2018 Apr;341(4):228-234. doi: 10.1016/j.crvi.2018.03.001. Epub 2018 Mar 21.
Dishevelled-associated activator of morphogenesis 1 (DAAM1) is a protein belonging to the formin family, which regulates, together with the small GTPase RhoA, the nucleation and the assembly of actin fibres through Wnt-Dishevelled PCP pathway. Its role has been investigated in essential biological processes, such as cell polarity, movement and adhesion during morphogenesis and organogenesis. In this work, we studied the expression of DAAM1 mRNA and protein by PCR and Western blot analyses and its co-localization with actin in adult mouse seminal vesicles by immunofluorescence. We show that both proteins are cytoplasmic: actin is evident at cell-cell junctions and at cell cortex; DAAM1 had a more diffused localization, but is also prominent at the apical plasmatic membrane of epithelial cells. These findings support our hypothesis of a role of DAAM1 in cytoskeletal rearrangement that occurs during the exocytosis of secretory vesicles, and in particular concerning actin filaments. We were also able to detect DAAM1 and actin association in the smooth muscle cells that surround the epithelium too. In this case, we could only speculate the possible involvement of this formin in muscular cells in the maintenance and the regulation of the contractile structures. The present results strongly suggest that DAAM1 could have a pivotal role in vesicle exocytosis and in the physiology of mouse seminal vesicles.
形态发生相关的散乱蛋白激活因子1（DAAM1）是一种属于formin家族的蛋白质，它通过Wnt-散乱蛋白平面细胞极性通路，与小GTP酶RhoA一起调节肌动蛋白纤维的成核和组装。其作用已在重要的生物学过程中得到研究，比如形态发生和器官发生过程中的细胞极性、运动和黏附。在这项工作中，我们通过PCR和蛋白质印迹分析研究了DAAM1 mRNA和蛋白质的表达，并通过免疫荧光研究了其在成年小鼠精囊中和肌动蛋白的共定位。我们发现这两种蛋白质都位于细胞质中：肌动蛋白在细胞间连接和细胞皮层处明显可见；DAAM1的定位更弥散，但在上皮细胞的顶端质膜处也很突出。这些发现支持了我们的假设，即DAAM1在分泌小泡胞吐过程中发生的细胞骨架重排中发挥作用，特别是涉及肌动蛋白丝。我们还能够在上皮周围的平滑肌细胞中检测到DAAM1与肌动蛋白的结合。在这种情况下，我们只能推测这种formin可能参与肌肉细胞中收缩结构的维持和调节。目前的结果强烈表明，DAAM1可能在小泡胞吐和小鼠精囊的生理学中起关键作用。
