Marcksb plays a key role in the secretory pathway of zebrafish Bmp2b

PLoS Genet. 2019 Sep 23;15(9):e1008306. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008306. eCollection 2019 Sep.

Abstract

During vertebrate early embryogenesis, the ventral development is directed by the ventral-to-dorsal activity gradient of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling. As secreted ligands, the extracellular traffic of BMP has been extensively studied. However, it remains poorly understood that how BMP ligands are secreted from BMP-producing cells. In this work, we show the dominant role of Marcksb controlling the secretory process of Bmp2b via interaction with Hsp70 in vivo. We firstly carefully characterized the role of Marcksb in promoting BMP signaling during dorsoventral axis formation through knockdown approach. We then showed that Marcksb cell autonomously regulates the trafficking of Bmp2b from producing cell to the extracellular space and both the total and the extracellular Bmp2b was decreased in Marcksb-deficient embryos. However, neither the zygotic mutant of marcksb (Zmarcksb) nor the maternal zygotic mutant of marcksb (MZmarcksb) showed any defects of dorsalization. In contrast, the MZmarcksb embryos even showed increased BMP signaling activity as measured by expression of BMP targets, phosphorylated Smad1/5/9 levels and imaging of Bmp2b, suggesting that a phenomenon of "genetic over-compensation" arose. Finally, we revealed that the over-compensation effects of BMP signaling in MZmarcksb was achieved through a sequential up-regulation of MARCKS-family members Marcksa, Marcksl1a and Marcksl1b, and MARCKS-interacting protein Hsp70.3. We concluded that the Marcksb modulates BMP signaling through regulating the secretory pathway of Bmp2b.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Body Patterning / physiology
  • Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 / metabolism*
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian / metabolism
  • Embryonic Development / genetics
  • Embryonic Development / physiology
  • Female
  • HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / metabolism
  • Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / metabolism*
  • Secretory Pathway
  • Signal Transduction
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta / metabolism
  • Zebrafish / metabolism
  • Zebrafish / physiology*
  • Zebrafish Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

  • Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2
  • HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins
  • Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins
  • Marcksb protein, zebrafish
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta
  • Zebrafish Proteins
  • bmp2b protein, zebrafish

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31721005 and 31671501 to YS, and grant number 31501163 to DY), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology (grant number 2019FBZ05) to YS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript