Troyer syndrome is an autosomal recessive hereditary spastic paraplegia caused by mutation in the spartin (SPG20) gene, which encodes a widely expressed protein of unknown function. This mutation results in premature protein truncation and thus might signify a loss-of-function disease mechanism. In this study, we have found that spartin is monoubiquitinated and functions in degradation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Upon EGF stimulation, spartin translocates from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane and colocalizes with internalized EGF-Alexa. Knockdown of spartin by small interfering RNA decreases the rate of EGFR degradation and also affects EGFR internalization, recycling, or both. Furthermore, overexpression of spartin results in a prominent decrease in EGFR degradation. Taken together, our data suggest that spartin is involved in the intracellular trafficking of EGFR and that impaired endocytosis may underlie the pathogenesis of Troyer syndrome.
INTRODUCTIONThe hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) comprise a cluster of inherited neurological disorders characterized by progressive spasticity and muscle weakness in the lower limbs Reid, 2003;Fink, 2006;Soderblom and Blackstone, 2006). Classically, the HSPs have been divided into two forms: "pure" when lower extremity spasticity and paraparesis are the only features and "complicated" when additional symptoms are present (Harding, 1983). More than 30 genetic loci (SPG1-33) and 14 gene products have been identified, yielding new insights into the molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of the HSPs. Troyer syndrome (SPG20), an autosomal recessive, complicated HSP that manifests in early childhood, is characterized by dysarthria, mental retardation, shortness of stature, and distal muscle wasting in addition to spasticity and weakness of the lower limbs (Cross and McKusick, 1967;Proukakis et al., 2004). To date, the only known mutation involved in Troyer syndrome is a single base deletion in the spartin gene, resulting in a 29-amino acid substitution at the C-terminus and premature truncation of the 666-amino acid protein by 268 residues (Patel et al., 2002;Proukakis et al., 2004).Although the cellular functions of spartin are not known, it harbors two conserved domains, an MIT (contained within microtubule-interacting and trafficking molecules) domain at the N-terminus and a plant-related region at the C-terminus. Although the only known function of the latter domain is in senescence (Panavas et al., 1999), the MIT domain is found in several other proteins, including Vps4-A and -B, sortin 15, and spastin (Ciccarelli et al., 2003), which are involved in vesicle trafficking and binding of microtubules. Interestingly, spastin, a microtubule-severing ATPase (Errico et al., 2002;Trotta et al., 2004;Evans et al., 2005), is mutated in the most common form of autosomal dominant HSP, SPG4 Reid, 2003;Fink, 2006;Soderblom and Blackstone, 2006). Although a region adjacent to the MIT domain is involved in the interaction of spastin with microtubules ...