Biology subjects

Shkarina, K.

Publications and source records attributed to Shkarina, K..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

The Opto-inflammasome in zebrafish: a tool to study cell and tissue responses to speck formation and cell death

The inflammasome is a conserved system for the intracellular detection of danger or pathogen signals. By forming a large intracellular multiprotein signaling platform, it activates downstream effectors that initiate a rapid necrotic programmed cell death (PCD) termed pyroptosis and activation and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines to warn and activate surrounding cells. However, inflammasome activation is difficult to control on a single-cell level using canonical triggers. We constructed Opto-Asc, a light-responsive form of the inflammasome adaptor protein ASC (Apoptosis-Associated Speck-Like Protein Containing a CARD) which allows tight control of inflammasome formation in vivo. We introduced a cassette of this construct under the control of a heat shock element into zebrafish in which we can now induce Asc inflammasome (speck) formation in single cells of the skin. We find that cell death resulting from Asc speck formation is morphological distinct from apoptosis in periderm but not in basal cells. Asc induced PCD in can lead to apical or basal extrusion from the periderm. The apical extrusion in periderm cells depends on Caspb but and triggers a strong Ca2+ signaling response in nearby cells.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2021

Optogenetic activators of apoptosis, necroptosis and pyroptosis for probing cell death dynamics and bystander cell responses

Targeted and specific induction of cell death in individual or groups of cells holds the potential for new insights into the response of tissues or organisms to different forms of death. Here we report the development of optogenetically-controlled cell death effectors (optoCDEs), a novel class of optogenetic tools that enables light-mediated induction of three types of programmed cell death (PCD) - apoptosis, pyroptosis and necroptosis - using Arabidopsis thaliana photosensitive protein Cryptochrome2. OptoCDEs enable rapid and highly specific induction of PCD in human, mouse and zebrafish cells and are suitable for a wide range of applications, such as sub-lethal cell death induction or precise elimination of single cells or cell populations in vitro and in vivo. As the proof-of-concept, we utilize optoCDEs to assess the differences in the neighboring cell response to apoptotic or necrotic PCD, revealing a new role for shingosine-1-phosphate signaling in regulating the efferocytosis of apoptotic cell by epithelia.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2018

A conserved MFS orchestrates a subset of O-glycosylation to facilitate macrophage dissemination and tissue invasion

Aberrant display of the truncated core1 O-glycan T-antigen is a common feature of human cancer cells that correlates with metastasis. Here we show that T-antigen in Drosophila melanogaster macrophages is involved in their developmentally programmed tissue invasion. Higher macrophage T-antigen levels require an atypical major facilitator superfamily (MFS) member that we named Minerva which enables macrophage dissemination and invasion. We characterize for the first time the T and Tn glycoform O-glycoproteome of the Drosophila melanogaster embryo, and determine that Minerva increases the presence of T-antigen on protein pathways previously linked to cancer, most strongly on the protein sulfhydryl oxidase Qsox1 which we show is required for macrophage invasion. Minervas vertebrate ortholog, MFSD1, rescues the minerva mutants migration and T-antigen glycosylation defects. We thus identify a key conserved regulator that orchestrates O-glycosylation on a protein subset to activate a program governing migration steps important for both development and cancer metastasis.

cancer biology↗