The Parkinson's Disease-Linked Protein DJ-1 Associates with Cytoplasmic mRNP Granules During Stress and Neurodegeneration

Mariaelena Repici, Mahdieh Hassanjani, Daniel C Maddison, Pedro Garção, Sara Cimini, Bhavini Patel, Éva M Szegö, Kornelis R Straatman, Kathryn S Lilley, Tiziana Borsello, Tiago F Outeiro, Lia Panman, Flaviano Giorgini

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Mutations in the gene encoding DJ-1 are associated with autosomal recessive forms of Parkinson's disease (PD). DJ-1 plays a role in protection from oxidative stress, but how it functions as an "upstream" oxidative stress sensor and whether this relates to PD is still unclear. Intriguingly, DJ-1 may act as an RNA binding protein associating with specific mRNA transcripts in the human brain. Moreover, we previously reported that the yeast DJ-1 homolog Hsp31 localizes to stress granules (SGs) after glucose starvation, suggesting a role for DJ-1 in RNA dynamics. Here, we report that DJ-1 interacts with several SG components in mammalian cells and localizes to SGs, as well as P-bodies, upon induction of either osmotic or oxidative stress. By purifying the mRNA associated with DJ-1 in mammalian cells, we detected several transcripts and found that subpopulations of these localize to SGs after stress, suggesting that DJ-1 may target specific mRNAs to mRNP granules. Notably, we find that DJ-1 associates with SGs arising from N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) excitotoxicity in primary neurons and parkinsonism-inducing toxins in dopaminergic cell cultures. Thus, our results indicate that DJ-1 is associated with cytoplasmic RNA granules arising during stress and neurodegeneration, providing a possible link between DJ-1 and RNA dynamics which may be relevant for PD pathogenesis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)61-77
Number of pages17
JournalMolecular Neurobiology
Volume56
Issue number1
Early online date19 Apr 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Keywords

  • DJ-1
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • RNA-binding proteins
  • Stress granules

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