0000000000281417
AUTHOR
Nasir Malik
Intraflagellar transport protein 172 is essential for primary cilia formation and plays a vital role in patterning the mammalian brain
AbstractIFT172, also known as Selective Lim-domain Binding protein (SLB), is a component of the intraflagellar transport (IFT) complex. In order to evaluate the biological role of the Ift172 gene, we generated a loss-of-function mutation in the mouse. The resulting Slb mutant embryos die between E12.5 and 13.0, and exhibit severe cranio-facial malformations, failure to close the cranial neural tube, holoprosencephaly, heart edema and extensive hemorrhages. Cilia outgrowth in cells of the neuroepithelium is initiated but the axonemes are severely truncated and do not contain visible microtubules. Morphological and molecular analyses revealed a global brain-patterning defect along the dorsal–…
The longevity assurance homologue of yeast lag1 (Lass) gene family (Review)
The Lass gene family contains a group of highly conserved genes that are found in eukaryotic species. The founding member, lag1, was discovered in a screen for yeast longevity genes. Subsequently, lag1 homologs were discovered in other organisms including six mammalian paralogs. All Lass genes encode a highly conserved Lag1 domain and many also have an additional Hox domain. Lass proteins are ceramide synthases and therefore are critical for ceramide biosynthesis. Ceramide synthase is also a critical enzyme in the sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway. As ceramide and sphingolipids are key intermediates in diverse cellular processes such as cell growth, apoptosis, and stress response and may al…