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Comments on Joohong Ahnn et al. (2002) East Coast Worm Meeting "Calcineurin, a component of G-protein coupled phosphorylation pathways, is involved in movement, fertility, egg laying, and growth in C. elegans" (0)
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Joohong Ahnn, Jungsoo Lee, Jiyeon Lee, & Jaya Bandyopadhyay (2002). Calcineurin, a component of G-protein coupled phosphorylation pathways, is involved in movement, fertility, egg laying, and growth in C. elegans presented in East Coast Worm Meeting. Unpublished information; cite only with author permission.
Calcineurin is a Ca2+ -calmodulin-dependent serine/threonine protein phosphatase that has been implicated in various signaling pathways. Here we report the identification and characterization of calcineurin genes in C. elegans (cna-1/tax-6 and cnb-1) which share high homology with Drosophila and mammalian calcineurin genes. C. elegans calcineurin binds calcium and functions as a heterodimeric protein phosphatase establishing its biochemical conservation in the nematode. GFP promoter analysis, whole-mount immunostaining and immuno-EM analysis was used to show calcineurin expression in hypodermal seam cells, body-wall muscle, vulva muscle, neuronal cells, and in sperm and the spermatheca. cnb-1 null mutants isolated by target-selected mutagenesis showed pleiotropic defects including low fertility, lethargic movement, and delayed egg-laying. Interestingly, these characteristic defects resembled phenotypes observed in gain-of-function mutants of unc-43/Ca2+ -calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and goa-1/Go -protein alpha-subunit. Mutants of these three genes display serotonin-mediated and levamisole-mediated egg laying defects suggesting a role for all three genes in vulva muscle function. Double mutants of cnb-1 and unc-43(gf) displayed a synergistic severity of movement and egg-laying defects. These data suggest that calcineurin has an antagonistic role in CaMKII-regulated G-protein-coupled phosphorylation signaling pathways in C. elegans.