Accumulation of endogenous LITAF in aggresomes.

Heather E Eaton, Julie Metcalf, Andressa Ferreira Lacerda, Craig R Brunetti

Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

PloS one 2012

filter terms:

LITAF is a 161 amino acid cellular protein which includes a proline rich N-terminus and a conserved C-terminal domain known as the simple-like domain. Mutations in LITAF have been identified in Charcot-Marie tooth disease, a disease characterized by protein aggregates. Cells transfected with cellular LITAF reveal that LITAF is localized to late endosomes/lysosomes. Here we investigated the intracellular localization of endogenous LITAF. We demonstrated that endogenous LITAF accumulates at a discrete cytoplasmic site in BGMK cells that we identify as the aggresome. To determine the domain within LITAF that is responsible for the localization of LITAF to aggresomes, we created a construct that contained the C-terminal simple-like domain of LITAF and found that this construct also localizes to aggresomes. These data suggest the simple-like domain is responsible for targeting endogenous LITAF to the aggresome.

Citation

Heather E Eaton, Julie Metcalf, Andressa Ferreira Lacerda, Craig R Brunetti. Accumulation of endogenous LITAF in aggresomes. PloS one. 2012;7(1):e30003