| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
aPKC and PAR-1 are required for cell polarity in various contexts. In mammalian epithelial cells, aPKC localizes at tight junctions (TJs) and plays an indispensable role in the development of asymmetric intracellular junctions essential for the establishment and the maintenance of apicobasal polarity. On the other hand, one of the mammalian PAR-1 kinases, PAR-1b/EMK1/MARK2, localizes to the lateral membrane in a complimentary manner with aPKC, but little is known about its role in apicobasal polarity of epithelial cells as well as its functional relationship with aPKC.
We demonstrate that PAR-1b is essential for the asymmetric development of membrane domains of polarized MDCK cells. Nonetheless, it is not required for the junctional localization of aPKC nor the formation of TJs, suggesting that PAR-1b works downstream of aPKC during epithelial cell polarization. On the other hand, we revealed that aPKC induces the PAR-1b binding with 14-3-3/PAR-5 by phosphorylates threonine 595 of PAR-1b. In polarized MDCK cells, T595 phosphorylation and 14-3-3 binding are only observed in the soluble form of PAR-1b, and okadaic acid treatment induces T595-dependent dissociation of PAR-1b from the lateral membrane. Furthermore, T595A mutation induces not only PAR-1b leakage into the apical membrane, but also abnormal development of membrane domains. These results suggest that in polarized epithelial cells aPKC phosphorylates PAR-1b at TJs, and in cooperation with 14-3-3, promotes the dissociation of PAR-1b from the lateral membrane to regulate PAR-1b activity for the membrane domain development.
These results suggest that mammalian aPKC functions upstream of PAR-1b both in the establishment and maintenance of epithelial cell polarity.
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