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. 2009 Aug 11;106(32):13377-82.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0906944106. Epub 2009 Jul 29.

Mouse Kif7/Costal2 is a cilia-associated protein that regulates Sonic hedgehog signaling

Affiliations

Mouse Kif7/Costal2 is a cilia-associated protein that regulates Sonic hedgehog signaling

Karel F Liem Jr et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Mammalian Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling is essential for embryonic development and stem cell maintenance and has critical roles in tumorigenesis. Although core components of the Shh pathway are conserved in evolution, important aspects of mammalian Shh signaling are not shared with the Drosophila pathway. Perhaps the most dramatic difference between the Drosophila and mammalian pathways is that Shh signaling in the mouse requires a microtubule-based organelle, the primary cilium. Proteins that are required for the response to Shh are enriched in the cilium, but it is not clear why the cilium provides an appropriate venue for signal transduction. Here, we demonstrate that Kif7, a mammalian homologue of Drosophila Costal2 (Cos2), is a cilia-associated protein that regulates signaling from the membrane protein Smoothened (Smo) to Gli transcription factors. By using a Kif7 mutant allele identified in a reporter-based genetic screen, we show that, similar to Drosophila and zebrafish Cos2, mouse Kif7 acts downstream of Smo and upstream of Gli2 and has both negative and positive roles in Shh signal transduction. Mouse Kif7 activity depends on the presence of cilia and Kif7-eGFP localizes to base of the primary cilium in the absence of Shh. Activation of the Shh pathway promotes trafficking of Kif7-eGFP from the base to the tip of the cilium, and localization to the tip of the cilium is disrupted in a motor domain mutant. We conclude that Kif7 is a core regulator of Shh signaling that may also act as a ciliary motor.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
The maki phenotype. (A) The expression of HB9-eGFP is stronger in maki than in wild-type E10.5 embryos. (B) Cross-sections through the brachial region of E10.5 embryos. HB9-eGFP is green; Shh protein expression is red. The domain of HB9-eGFP is expanded dorsally in maki embryos, whereas the domain of Shh expression in the floor plate is the same in maki and wild type. Dorsal, up. (C) Skeletal preparations of postnatal day 1 forelimbs show that maki embryos have preaxial polydactyly; this defect is completely penetrant. (D) Sections through the brachial neural tube of E9.5 embryos carrying a Ptch1-lacZ transgene, stained for β-galactosidase activity.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Kif7 acts in the Shh pathway. (A) Expression of markers of motor neurons (expressing HB9-GFP; green) and V3 progenitors (marked by Nkx2.2; red) in single- and double-mutant neural tubes of E10.5 embryos. DAPI is blue. All sections are at the thoracic level; dorsal is up. Numbers of double-mutant embryos examined were as follows: 2 Ptch1 Kif7maki; 1 Smobnb Kif7maki; 4 Gli2 Kif7maki; 1 Gli3 Kif7maki. (B) The Kif7maki mutation rescues the early lethality of Smobnb. E10.5 embryos, from Left to Right, are as follows: Smobnb Kif7maki; Smobnb; Kif7maki. Smobnb Kif7maki double mutants resemble Kif7maki single mutants except that they show pericardial edema and an abnormal shape of the cranial neural tube. (C) The Kif7maki mutation rescues the early lethality and failure to turn of Ptch1. E9.5 embryos, from Left to Right, are as follows: Ptch1; Kif7maki; Ptch1 Kif7maki. Ptch1 Kif7maki double mutants complete embryonic turning and generate similar numbers of somites as the Kif7maki littermates, but have an open cranial neural tube. Heterozygosity for Kif7maki did not cause detectable dominant modification of any of these Shh pathway mutants. (D) Gli proteins in E10.5 whole-embryo extracts, analyzed by Western blot analysis. The arrowhead indicates full-length Gli3; the asterisk (*) indicates Gli3-repressor. In this experiment, the Kif7maki extract has 15% more Gli2 protein and a 3-fold lower ratio of Gli3-repressor/Gli3-full length than the wild-type control. The same trends were seen in other experiments.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Kif7 activity depends on cilia. The distribution of motor neurons, marked by expression of HB9-GFP in whole E9.5 embryos and Isl1/2 in sections of the thoracic neural tube, in IFT single and double mutants. Ift172wim single mutants and Ift172wim Kif7maki double mutants both have a few scattered motor neurons in the ventral spinal cord. The Dync2h1mmi mutation was identified based on the loss of HB9-GFP expression in the cervical spinal cord (arrow). Dync2h1mmi Kif7maki double mutants have fewer motor neurons than Dync2h1mmi single mutants. Nkx2.2 was not expressed in Ift172wim, Kif7maki Ift172wim, or Kif7maki Dync2h1mmi double mutants. Numbers of double-mutant embryos examined were as follows: 2 Kif7maki Ift172wim; 2 Kif7maki Dync2h1mmi. No phenotypic variation was noted among embryos of the same genotype.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Kif7 traffics within cilia. (A) A field of NIH 3T3 cells expressing Kif7-eGFP. In virtually all cells, Kif7-eGFP (green) is enriched at the base of the cilia, marked by expression of acetylated α-tubulin (red). Nuclei are visualized with DAPI (blue). (Scale bar: 10 μm.) (B and C) High-magnification view of Kif7-eGFP in NIH 3T3 cells not treated with SAG. Forty-nine of 50 cells examined by confocal microscopy had GFP at the base but not the tip of the cilium, and none had GFP at the cilia tip. (D and E) Kif7-eGFP at the tips of cilia (arrows) 24 h after treatment with 100 nM SAG. Base and tip GFP was seen in 20 of 25 cells analyzed, and 5 cells had GFP only at the base. (F and G) In cells expressing the mutant Kif7L130P-eGFP, GFP was detected at the base, but not the tip, of the cilium 24 h after addition of SAG. Zero of 18 cells had tip GFP after SAG treatment; 16 of 18 had GFP at the cilia base. The pattern of GFP detected was the same when detected as endogenous GFP or by using anti-GFP antibodies to detect the fusion protein. (Scale bar: B–G, 5 μm.)

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