The transcriptional program orchestrated by Hedgehog signaling depends on the Gli family of transcription factors. Gli proteins can be converted to either transcriptional activators or truncated transcriptional repressors. We show that the interaction between Gli3 and Suppressor of Fused (Sufu) regulates the formation of either repressor or activator forms of Gli3. In the absence of signaling, Sufu restrains Gli3 in the cytoplasm, promoting its processing into a repressor. Initiation of signaling triggers the dissociation of Sufu from Gli3. This event prevents formation of the repressor and instead allows Gli3 to enter the nucleus, where it is converted into a labile, differentially phosphorylated transcriptional activator. This key dissociation event depends on Kif3a, a kinesin motor required for the function of primary cilia. We propose that the Sufu-Gli3 interaction is a major control point in the Hedgehog pathway, a pathway that plays important roles in both development and cancer.[Keywords: Hedgehog signaling; Gli proteins; Suppressor of Fused; primary cilia; development; cancer] Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.

SUMMARY Vertebrate Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is initiated at primary cilia by the ligand-triggered accumulation of Smoothened (Smo) in the ciliary membrane. The underlying biochemical mechanisms remain unknown. We find that Hh agonists promote the association between Smo and Evc2, a ciliary protein that is defective in two human ciliopathies. The formation of the Smo-Evc2 complex is under strict spatial control, being restricted to a distinct ciliary compartment, the EvC zone. Mutant Evc2 proteins that localize in cilia but are displaced from the EvC zone are dominant inhibitors of Hh signaling. Disabling Evc2 function blocks Hh signaling at a specific step between Smo and the downstream regulators protein kinase A and Suppressor of Fused, preventing activation of the Gli transcription factors. Our data suggest that the Smo-Evc2 signaling complex at the EvC zone is required for Hh signal transmission and elucidate the molecular basis of two human ciliopathies.

The Hedgehog (Hh) pathway depends on primary cilia in vertebrates, but the signaling machinery within cilia remains incompletely defined. We report the identification of a complex between two ciliary proteins, EFCAB7 and IQCE, which positively regulates the Hh pathway. The EFCAB7-IQCE module anchors the EVC-EVC2 complex in a signaling microdomain at the base of cilia. EVC and EVC2 genes are mutated in Ellis van Creveld and Weyers syndromes, characterized by impaired Hh signaling in skeletal, cardiac and orofacial tissues. EFCAB7 binds to a C-terminal disordered region in EVC2 that is deleted in Weyers patients. EFCAB7 depletion mimics the Weyers cellular phenotype— the mis-localization of EVC-EVC2 within cilia and impaired activation of the transcription factor GLI2. Evolutionary analysis suggests that emergence of these complexes might have been important for adaptation of an ancient organelle, the cilium, for an animal-specific signaling network.

No abstract

We report on the molecular and biochemical characterization of CDJ1, one of three zinc-finger-containing J-domain proteins encoded by the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii genome. Fractionation experiments indicate that CDJ1 is a plastidic protein. In the chloroplast, CDJ1 was localized to the soluble stroma fraction, but also to thylakoids and to low density membranes. Although the CDJ1 gene was strongly heat shock inducible, CDJ1 protein levels increased only slightly during heat shock. Cellular CDJ1 concentrations were close to those of heat shock protein 70B (HSP70B), the major HSP70 in the Chlamydomonas chloroplast. CDJ1 complemented the temperature-sensitive phenotype of an Escherichia coli mutant lacking its dnaJ gene and interacted with E. coli DnaK, hence classifying it as a bona fide DnaJ protein. In soluble cell extracts, CDJ1 was found to organize into stable dimers and into complexes of high molecular mass. Immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that CDJ1 forms common complexes with plastidic HSP90C, HSP70B, and CGE1. In blue native-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, all four (co)chaperones migrated at 40% to 90% higher apparent than calculated molecular masses, indicating that greatest care must be taken when molecular masses of protein complexes are estimated from their migration relative to standard native marker proteins. Immunoprecipitation experiments from size-fractioned soluble cell extracts suggested that HSP90C and HSP70B exist as preformed complex that is joined by CDJ1. In summary, CDJ1 and CGE1 are novel cohort proteins of the chloroplast HSP90-HSP70 multichaperone complex. As HSP70B, CDJ1, and CGE1 are derived from the endosymbiont, whereas HSP90C is of eukaryotic origin, we observe in the chloroplast the interaction of two chaperone systems of distinct evolutionary origin.Molecular chaperones of the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family are involved in a variety of different tasks, like the folding of nonnative proteins to the native state (Frydman, 2001;Hartl and Hayer-Hartl, 2002), protein quality control (Bukau et al., 2006), the transport of proteins across membranes (Neupert and Brunner, 2002), the assembly and disassembly of protein complexes (Mayer, 2005), or the regulation of the stress response (Voellmy and Boellmann, 2007). HSP70s function in concert with different cochaperones, which are usually involved in one of the following processes (or a combination of them): they regulate the ATPase activity of their HSP70 partner, supply their HSP70 partner with substrates, or connect it with other proteins involved in protein folding or degradation.An important class of HSP70 cochaperones is the one of the J-domain proteins (Craig et al., 2006;Qiu et al., 2006). These interact via their J domains with HSP70s in the ATP state (Wittung-Strafshede et al., 2003), stimulate the ATPase activity of their HSP70 partner (Liberek et al., 1991), and lock the latter onto specific substrates (Han and Christen, 2003). By this, J-domain proteins mediate substrate specificity and thereby the function of...