Phenotypical analysis of atypical PKCs in vivo function display a compensatory system at mouse embryonic day 7.5.

BACKGROUND:The atypical protein kinases C isoforms ι/λ and ζ play crucial roles in many cellular processes including development, cell proliferation, differentiation and cell survival. Possible redundancy between the two isoforms has always been an issue since most biochemical tools do not differentiate between the two proteins. Thus, much effort has been made during the last decades to characterize the functions of using gene targeting approaches and depletion studies. However, little is known about the specific roles of each isoform in mouse development. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:To evaluate the importance of in mouse development we designed duanyu1531ι deletion mutants using the gene targeting approach. We show that the deletion of results in a reduced size of the amniotic cavity at E7.5 and impaired growth of the embryo at E8.5 with subsequent absorption of the embryo. Our data also indicate an impaired localization of ZO-1 and disorganized structure of the epithelial tissue in the embryo. Importantly, using electron microscopy, embryoid body formation and immunofluorescence analysis, we found, that in the absence of duanyu1531ι, tight junctions and apico-basal polarity were still established. Finally, our study points to a non-redundant duanyu1531ι function at E9.5, since expression of is able to rescue the E7.5 phenotype, but could not prevent embryonic lethality at a later time-point (E9.5). CONCLUSION:Our data show that duanyu1531ι is crucial for mouse embryogenesis but is dispensable for the establishment of polarity and tight junction formation. We present a compensatory function of duanyu1531ζ at E7.5, rescuing the phenotype. Furthermore, this study indicates at least one specific, yet unknown, duanyu1531ι function that cannot be compensated by the overexpression of duanyu1531ζ at E9.5.

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