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Nakamura, Fumihiko

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Nakamura

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Fumihiko

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Nakamura, Fumihiko

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    Filamin-A Regulates Neutrophil Uropod Retraction through RhoA during Chemotaxis
    (Public Library of Science, 2013) Sun, Chunxiang; Forster, Carol; Nakamura, Fumihiko; Glogauer, Michael
    Filamin-A (FLNa) has been shown to be a key cross-linker of actin filaments in the leading edge of a motile melanoma cell line, however its role in neutrophils undergoing chemotaxis is unknown. Using a murine transgenic model in which FLNa is selectively deleted in granulocytes, we report that, while neutrophils lacking FLNa show normal polarization and pseudopod extension, they exhibit obvious defects in uropod retraction. This uropod retraction defect was found to be a direct result of reduced FLNa mediated activation of the small GTPase RhoA and myosin mediated actin contraction in the FLNa null cells. This results in a neutrophil recruitment defect in FLNa null mice. The compensatory increase in FLNb levels that was observed in the FLNa null neutrophils may be sufficient to compensate for the lack of FLNa at the leading edge allowing for normal polarization, however this compensation is unable to regulate RhoA activated tail retraction at the rear of the cell.
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    Remodeling of the Intestinal Brush Border Underlies Adhesion and Virulence of an Enteric Pathogen
    (American Society of Microbiology, 2014) Zhou, Xiaohui; Massol, Ramiro H.; Nakamura, Fumihiko; Chen, Xiang; Gewurz, Benjamin E.; Davis, Brigid M.; Lencer, Wayne I.; Waldor, Matthew K.
    ABSTRACT Intestinal colonization by Vibrio parahaemolyticus—the most common cause of seafood-borne bacterial enteritis worldwide—induces extensive disruption of intestinal microvilli. In orogastrically infected infant rabbits, reorganization of the apical brush border membrane includes effacement of some microvilli and marked elongation of others. All diarrhea, inflammation, and intestinal pathology associated with V. parahaemolyticus infection are dependent upon one of its type 3 secretion systems (T3SS2); however, translocated effectors that directly mediate brush border restructuring and bacterial adhesion are not known. Here, we demonstrate that the effector VopV is essential for V. parahaemolyticus intestinal colonization and therefore its pathogenicity, that it induces effacement of brush border microvilli, and that this effacement is required for adhesion of V. parahaemolyticus to enterocytes. VopV contains multiple functionally independent and mechanistically distinct domains through which it disrupts microvilli. We show that interaction between VopV and filamin, as well as VopV’s previously noted interaction with actin, mediates enterocyte cytoskeletal reorganization. VopV’s multipronged approach to epithelial restructuring, coupled with its impact on colonization, suggests that remodeling of the epithelial brush border is a critical step in pathogenesis.
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    PTP1B triggers integrin-mediated repression of myosin activity and modulates cell contractility
    (The Company of Biologists Ltd, 2016) González Wusener, Ana E.; González, Ángela; Nakamura, Fumihiko; Arregui, Carlos O.
    ABSTRACT Cell contractility and migration by integrins depends on precise regulation of protein tyrosine kinase and Rho-family GTPase activities in specific spatiotemporal patterns. Here we show that protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B cooperates with β3 integrin to activate the Src/FAK signalling pathway which represses RhoA-myosin-dependent contractility. Using PTP1B null (KO) cells and PTP1B reconstituted (WT) cells, we determined that some early steps following cell adhesion to fibronectin and vitronectin occurred robustly in WT cells, including aggregation of β3 integrins and adaptor proteins, and activation of Src/FAK-dependent signalling at small puncta in a lamellipodium. However, these events were significantly impaired in KO cells. We established that cytoskeletal strain and cell contractility was highly enhanced at the periphery of KO cells compared to WT cells. Inhibition of the Src/FAK signalling pathway or expression of constitutive active RhoA in WT cells induced a KO cell phenotype. Conversely, expression of constitutive active Src or myosin inhibition in KO cells restored the WT phenotype. We propose that this novel function of PTP1B stimulates permissive conditions for adhesion and lamellipodium assembly at the protruding edge during cell spreading and migration.
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    Documentation and Localization of Force-mediated Filamin A Domain Perturbations in Moving Cells
    (2014) Nakamura, Fumihiko; Song, Mia; Hartwig, John; Stossel, Thomas
    Endogenously and externally generated mechanical forces influence diverse cellular activities, a phenomenon defined as mechanotransduction. Deformation of protein domains by application of stress, previously documented to alter macromolecular interactions in vitro, could mediate these effects. We engineered a photon-emitting system responsive to unfolding of two repeat domains of the actin filament (F-actin) crosslinker protein filamin A (FLNA) that binds multiple partners involved in cell signaling reactions and validated the system using F-actin networks subjected to myosin-based contraction. Expressed in cultured cells, the sensor-containing FLNA construct reproducibly reported FLNA domain unfolding strikingly localized to dynamic, actively protruding, leading cell edges. The unfolding signal depends upon coherence of F-actin-FLNA networks and is enhanced by stimulating cell contractility. The results establish protein domain distortion as a bona fide mechanism for mechanotransduction in vivo.
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    Mechanical Perturbation of Filamin A Immunoglobulin Repeats 20-21 Reveals Potential Non-equilibrium Mechanochemical Partner Binding Function
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2013) Chen, Hu; Chandrasekar, Saranya; Sheetz, Michael P.; Stossel, Thomas; Nakamura, Fumihiko; Yan, Jie
    The actin crosslinking protein filamin A (FLNa) mediates mechanotransduction, a conversion of mechanical forces into cellular biochemical signals to regulate cell growth and survival. To provide more quantitative insight into this process, we report results using magnetic tweezers that relate mechanical force to conformational changes of FLNa immunoglobulin-like repeats (IgFLNa) 20–21, previously identified as a mechanosensing domain. We determined the force magnitudes required to unfold previously identified structural organizations of the β-strands in the two domains: IgFLNa 20 unfolds at ~15 pN and IgFLNa 21 unfolding requires significantly larger forces. Unfolded domain IgFLNa 20 can exist in two different conformational states, which lead to different refolding kinetics of the IgFLNa 20 and imply a significant impact on the reformation of the domain pair at reduced force values. We discuss the relevance of the findings to force bearing and mechanosensing functions of FLNa.
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    Molecular Basis of Filamin A-FilGAP Interaction and Its Impairment in Congenital Disorders Associated with Filamin A Mutations
    (Public Library of Science, 2009) Heikkinen, Outi; Pentikäinen, Olli T.; Kasza, Karen E.; Kupiainen, Olga; Permi, Perttu; Kilpeläinen, Ilkka; Ylänne, Jari; Nakamura, Fumihiko; Osborn, Teresia; Weitz, David; Hartwig, John; Stossel, Thomas
    Background: Mutations in filamin A (FLNa), an essential cytoskeletal protein with multiple binding partners, cause developmental anomalies in humans. Methodology/principal findings: We determined the structure of the 23rd Ig repeat of FLNa (IgFLNa23) that interacts with FilGAP, a Rac-specific GTPase-activating protein and regulator of cell polarity and movement, and the effect of the three disease-related mutations on this interaction. A combination of NMR structural analysis and in silico modeling revealed the structural interface details between the C and D \(\beta-strands\) of the IgFLNa23 and the C-terminal 32 residues of FilGAP. Mutagenesis of the predicted key interface residues confirmed the binding constraints between the two proteins. Specific loss-of-function FLNa constructs were generated and used to analyze the importance of the FLNa-FilGAP interaction in vivo. Point mutagenesis revealed that disruption of the FLNa-FilGAP interface perturbs cell spreading. FilGAP does not bind FLNa homologs FLNb or FLNc establishing the importance of this interaction to the human FLNa mutations. Tight complex formation requires dimerization of both partners and the correct alignment of the binding surfaces, which is promoted by a flexible hinge domain between repeats 23 and 24 of FLNa. FLNa mutations associated with human developmental anomalies disrupt the binding interaction and weaken the elasticity of FLNa/F-actin network under high mechanical stress. Conclusions/significance: Mutational analysis informed by structure can generate reagents for probing specific cellular interactions of FLNa. Disease-related FLNa mutations have demonstrable effects on FLNa function.