PUBLICATION
Specific activation of ERK pathways by chitin oligosaccharides in embryonic zebrafish cell lines
- Authors
- Snaar-Jagalska, B.E., Krens, S.F., Robina, I., Wang, L.X., and Spaink, H.P.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-030728-10
- Date
- 2003
- Source
- Glycobiology 13(10): 725-732 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Krens, S. F. Gabby, Snaar-Jagalska, Ewa B., Spaink, Herman P.
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Carbohydrate Sequence
- Cell Line
- Chitin/pharmacology*
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/cytology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/enzymology
- Enzyme Activation/drug effects
- MAP Kinase Signaling System/drug effects*
- Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/metabolism*
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Molecular Structure
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- PubMed
- 12881410 Full text @ Glycobiology
Citation
Snaar-Jagalska, B.E., Krens, S.F., Robina, I., Wang, L.X., and Spaink, H.P. (2003) Specific activation of ERK pathways by chitin oligosaccharides in embryonic zebrafish cell lines. Glycobiology. 13(10):725-732.
Abstract
Chitin oligosaccharides (COs) play a role in plant development and are presumed to affect body plan formation during vertebrate embryogenesis. The mechanisms of COs recognition and cellular processes underlying embryonic development are still not understood. Here we analyzed the possible link with the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway that is conserved in evolution through the plant and animal kingdom and has been implicated in diverse cellular processes including cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, survival and vertebrate development. We show that in vivo stimulation of embryonic zebrafish cells ZF13 and ZF29 with chitin tetrasaccharides at 10(-9) M concentration transiently induced activation/phosphorylation of ERKs, with a maximum after 15 min. Furthermore, the biological specificity of chitin tetrasaccharides and various derivatives was examined. The replacement of one or two GlcNAc residues of the chitin backbone by glucose and fucosylation of chitin tetrasaccharides at the reducing terminus caused a complete loss of their activity. We also tested a chitin tetrasaccharide analogue in which the oxygen atoms in glycosidic linkages were replaced by sulphur atoms. This analogue, that could not be enzymatically hydrolyzed, was as potent an inducer as chitin tetrasaccharide. These results suggest that the observed activation of ERKs is chitin tetrasaccharide specific and does not require further enzymatic processing. We examined possible signalling pathways leading to ERKs activation by COs by use of phospho-specific antibodies and inhibitors. From this we conclude that a high affinity chitin oligosaccharide receptor system exists which links to the Raf, MEK and ERK pathway in zebrafish cells.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping