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J. Cell Biol.,
Volume 144, Number 3, February 8, 1999 403-411
-interacting Protein




* Department of Structural Molecular Biology, Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Ibaraki, Osaka,
567-0047, Japan; and By the yeast two-hybrid screening of a rat
brain cDNA library with the regulatory domain of protein kinase C
Biosignal Research Center, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, 657-8501, Japan
(PKC
) as a bait, we have cloned a gene
coding for a novel PKC
-interacting protein homologous to the Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-76 protein involved in axonal outgrowth and fasciculation. The protein designated FEZ1 (fasciculation and elongation
protein zeta-1) consisting of 393 amino acid residues
shows a high Asp/Glu content and contains several regions predicted to form amphipathic helices. Northern blot analysis has revealed that FEZ1 mRNA is abundantly expressed in adult rat brain and throughout the
developmental stages of mouse embryo. By the yeast
two-hybrid assay with various deletion mutants of PKC,
FEZ1 was shown to interact with the NH2-terminal variable region (V1) of PKC
and weakly with that of
PKC
. In the COS-7 cells coexpressing FEZ1 and
PKC
, FEZ1 was present mainly in the plasma membrane, associating with PKC
and being phosphorylated. These results indicate that FEZ1 is a novel substrate of PKC
. When the constitutively active mutant
of PKC
was used, FEZ1 was found in the cytoplasm of
COS-7 cells. Upon treatment of the cells with a PKC inhibitor, staurosporin, FEZ1 was translocated from the
cytoplasm to the plasma membrane, suggesting that the
cytoplasmic translocation of FEZ1 is directly regulated
by the PKC
activity. Although expression of FEZ1
alone had no effect on PC12 cells, coexpression of
FEZ1 and constitutively active PKC
stimulated the
neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells. Combined with
the recent finding that a human FEZ1 protein is able to
complement the function of UNC-76 necessary for normal axonal bundling and elongation within axon bundles in the nematode, these results suggest that FEZ1
plays a crucial role in the axon guidance machinery in
mammals by interacting with PKC
.
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