Invited Review the Role of Dystroglycan, a Novel Receptor Of
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Hislol Hislopalhol (1997) 12: 195-203 Histology and 001: 10.14670/HH-12.195 Histopathology http://www.hh.um.es From Cell Biology to Tissue Engineering Invited Review The role of dystroglycan, a novel receptor of laminin and agrin, in cell differentiation K. Matsumura, H. Yamada, F. Saito, Y. Sunada and T. Shimizu Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Summary. Dystroglycan was originally identified as the dystrophin-associated proteins (DAPs) (for overviews on extracellular and transmembrane constituents of a large the DGC and the DAPs see Tinsley et aI. , 1994; oligomeric complex of sarcolemmal proteins associated Campbell, 1995; Ozawa et aI., 1995; Worton, 1995). In with dystrophin , the protein product of the Duchenne DMD patients and mdx mice, the absence of dystrophin muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene. During the last few leads to a drastic reduction of all the DAPs in the years, dystroglycan has been demonstrated to be a novel sarcolemma. Extensive studies over the last several years receptor of not only laminin but also agrin, two major have indicated that the DAPs are classified into three proteins of the extracellular matrix having distinct groups: (1) the syntrophin complex; (2) the sarcoglycan biological effects. The fact that the drastic reduction of complex; and (3) the dystroglycan complex (Fig. I). The dystroglycan in the sarcolemma, caused by the absence syntrophin complex is comprised of the members of the of dystrophin, leads to muscle cell death in DMD syntrophin family, a-, 131- and 132-syntrophin, which are patients and mdx mice indicates that , as a laminin cytoplasmic proteins complexed with the carboxyl receptor, dys troglycan contributes to sarcolemmal terminal domain of dystrophin or its homologues. The stabilization during contraction and stretch of striated sarcoglycan complex is comprised of three trans muscle cells. Dystroglycan is also expressed in the membrane glycoproteins, a-, 13- and y-sarcoglycan. neuromuscular junction and non-muscle tissues such as Although the physiological functions of the syntrophin kidney, brain and peripheral nerve, and, as a receptor of and sarcoglycan complexes remain obscure at present, laminin/agrin , has been implicated in such diverse and recent studies have demonstrated that primary deficiency specific developmental processes as epithelial of a-, 13- and y-sarcoglycan causes three forms of morphogenesis, synaptogenesis and myelinogenesis. autosomal recessive muscular dystrophies, LGMD2D, These findings point to the fundamental role of LGMD2E and LGMD2C, respectively, suggesting that dystroglycan in the cellular differentiation process the sarcoglycan complex plays a crucial role in the shared by many different cell types. In this paper, we stabilization of the sarcolemma. review the recent publications on the biological In contrast to the syntrophin and sarcoglycan functions of dystroglycan and discuss its roles in cell complexes, the dystroglycan complex has been differentiation. characterized extensively during the last few years and this has led to the amazing discovery that it is a receptor Key words: Dystroglycan, Laminin, Agrin, Dystrophin, of the extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins laminin and Extracellular matrix agrin in various tissues. As a receptor of laminin/agrin, the dystroglycan complex is presumed to play roles in diverse and specific physiological processes such as Introduction epithelial morphogenesis, synaptogenesis and myelino genesis, as well as stabilization of the sarcolemma. In In skeletal muscle, dystrophin, a large membrane this paper, we review the recent publications on the associated cytoskeletal protein encoded by the Duchenne biological functions of the dystroglycan complex and muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene, exists in a large discuss its roles in cell differentiation in various tissues. oligomeric complex (the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex or DGC) tightly associated with several The primary structure of dystroglycan sarcolemmal proteins, which are collectively called the Dystroglycan was originally identified as the 156 Offprint requests to: Dr. Kiichiro Matsumura, M.D. , Ph.D. , Department of kDa and 43 kDa constituents of the DGC in skeletal Neurology, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 2-11-1 Kaga, Itabashi muscle (Ervasti et aI., 1990). Interestingly, cDNA ku. Tokyo 173. Japan cloning disclosed that both the 156 kDa and 43 kDa 196 Functions of dystrog/yean eomp/ex proteins are encoded by a single 5.8 kb mRNA and that between 120 kDa to 190 kDa among different tissues, post-translational processing of a 97 kDa precursor whereas the core protein has a molecular mass of only protein resulted in two mature proteins (lbraghimov about 70 kDa, suggesting that it may be a target of Be krovnzaya et aI. , 1992). The 156 kDa and 43 kDa extensive post-translational modification , such as proteins were found to correspond to the amino- and glycosylation. This is consistent with the facts that: (I) carboxyl-terminal halves of the dystroglycan precursor a-dystroglycan contains three potential N-glycosylation protein and were named a- and l3-dystroglycan, sites and numerous potential O-glycosylation sites respectively (Ibraghimov-Beskrovnaya et aI. , 1992). (Ibraghimov-Beskrovnaya et aI., 1992); and (2) a Dystroglycan has no significant homology with any dystroglycan i far more negatively charged than known proteins. There is a signal sequence in the amino predicted from the primary structure (Gee et aI., 1993; terminus and a single transmembrane domain of 24 Smalheiser and Kim, 1995). Indeed, the results of lectin amino acids near the carbox.yl-terminus. This suggests staining and digestion with deglycosylation enzymes or that a- and l3-dy s troglycan are extracellular and O-sialogJycoprotease indicate that a-dystroglycan is a transmembrane proteins, respectively (Ibraghimov mucin-type glycoprotein , which is defined as a Beskrovanaya et aI. , 1992). Tryptic peptide mapping of glycoprotein heavily glycosylated in the O-sites (Ervasti purified a- and l3-dystroglycan and amino-terminal and Campbell , 1991; Smalheiser and Kim , 1995; amino acid sequencing of purified l3-dystroglycan have Yamada et aI. , 1996a). The most prominent feature of identified serine 654 of the dystroglycan precursor as the mucin domains of glycoproteins is the high content of single cleavage site (Deyst et aI. , 1995; Smalheiser and proline residues in the vicinity of serine and threonine Kim, 1995). The complex comprised of a- and 13- O-glycosylation sites . Such a characteristic sequence can dystrogJycan is called the dystroglycan complex . be found in the middle portion of a-dystroglycan , However, the precise nature of the interaction between suggesting that this may be a mucin domain. This region these two proteins has not yet been characterized. The is expected to take the form of a rigid rod , since complex dystrogJycan gene, containing two exons, is localized on secondary and tertiary structures are hindered by heavy chromosome 3p21 and 9 in human and mouse , glycosylation (Fig. I). Consistent with this prediction, respectively (Ibraghimov-Beskrovnaya et aI., 1993; analysis by electron microscopy demonstrated that the G6recki et aI., 1994). Thus far, no disease-causing isoJated cardiac muscle a-dystroglycan consisted of two mutations have been identified in the dystroglycan gene. globular domains connected by a rod-like segment (Brancaccio et aI., 1995). At present, there is no Glycosylation of a-dystroglycan direct evidence which indicates that a-dystroglycan contains glycosaminoglycan chains as originally The molecular mass of a-dystroglycan ranges proposed. Glycocalyx Sarcolemma Cytoplasm Fig. 1. The molecular organization of the DGC in skeletal muscle. a-DG : a-dystroglycan; B-DG: B dystroglycan; a-SG : a-sarcoglycan ; B-SG: B sarcoglycan ; y-SG : y- sarcoglycan; 25: the 25 kDa DAP ; SYN: syntrophin; nNOS: neuronal nitric oxide synthase; DYS: dystrophin; UTR : utrophin. 197 Functions of dystroglycan complex The dystroglycan complex and signal transduction and immunoelectron microscopy (Ervasti et aI., 1990; Ervasti and Campbell, 1991; Ibraghimov-Beskrovnaya et The intracellular signal transduction pathways aI., 1992; Cullen et aI., 1994; Wakayama et aI., 1995). In activated by adhesion of cells to other cells or the ECM cardiac muscle, it is localized in the transverse tubules in play crucial roles in cell differentiation, migration and addition to the sarcolemma (Klietsch et aI., 1993). The proliferation. The prototypical cell adhesion molecules molecular organization of the skeletal muscle are the cell sUiface receptors for the ECM glycoproteins. dystroglycan complex has been investigated extensively. As a receptor of the ECM glycoproteins laminin and The DGC was isolated from the detergent extracts of the agrin (discussed below), the dystroglycan complex skeletal muscle membrane fractions using wheat germ fulfills this criterion, raising a possibility that it may be agglutinin (WGA) and DEAE chromatography followed involved in the signaling pathways. This is supported by by sucrose density gradient centrifugation (Ervasti et aI. , the fact that the intracellular carboxyl-terminal tail of B 1990; Ervasti and Campbell, 1991). Both a- and B dystroglycan contains a phosphotyrosine consensus dystroglycan were identified as major constituents of the sequence and several proline-rich regions which could isolated DGC, together with dystrophin and the associate with SH2 and SH3 domains