C9orf72 Dipeptide Repeats Impair the Assembly, Dynamics, and Function of Membrane-Less Organelles

Kyung Ha Lee, Peipei Zhang, Hong Joo Kim, Diana M. Mitrea, Mohona Sarkar, Brian D. Freibaum, Jaclyn Cika, Maura Coughlin, James Messing, Amandine Molliex, Brian A. Maxwell, Nam Chul Kim, Jamshid Temirov, Jennifer Moore, Regina Maria Kolaitis, Timothy I. Shaw, Bing Bai, Junmin Peng, Richard W. Kriwacki, J. Paul Taylor

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

508 Scopus citations

Abstract

Expansion of a hexanucleotide repeat GGGGCC (G4C2) in C9ORF72 is the most common cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Transcripts carrying (G4C2) expansions undergo unconventional, non-ATG-dependent translation, generating toxic dipeptide repeat (DPR) proteins thought to contribute to disease. Here, we identify the interactome of all DPRs and find that arginine-containing DPRs, polyGly-Arg (GR) and polyPro-Arg (PR), interact with RNA-binding proteins and proteins with low complexity sequence domains (LCDs) that often mediate the assembly of membrane-less organelles. Indeed, most GR/PR interactors are components of membrane-less organelles such as nucleoli, the nuclear pore complex and stress granules. Genetic analysis in Drosophila demonstrated the functional relevance of these interactions to DPR toxicity. Furthermore, we show that GR and PR altered phase separation of LCD-containing proteins, insinuating into their liquid assemblies and changing their material properties, resulting in perturbed dynamics and/or functions of multiple membrane-less organelles.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)774-788.e17
JournalCell
Volume167
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 20 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Inc.

Keywords

  • C9ORF72
  • amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  • dipeptide repeat
  • membrane-less organelle
  • nucleolus
  • phase separation
  • stress granule

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