Identification of whirlin domains interacting with espin: A study of the mechanism of Usher syndrome type  II.

Identification of whirlin domains interacting with espin: A study of the mechanism of Usher syndrome type II. Mol Med Rep. 2019 Oct 07;: Authors: Wang L, Wei B, Fu X, Wang Y, Sui Y, Ma J, Gong X, Hao J, Xing S Abstract Usher syndrome is the most common condition of combined blindness and deafness and is classified into three types (USH1‑USH3). USH2 is the most commonly diagnosed of all Usher syndrome cases. There are three identified proteins (usherin, GPR98 and whirlin) that form the USH2 complex. Defects in any of these proteins may cause failure in the formation of the USH2 complex, which is the primary cause of USH2. Whirlin is a scaffold protein and is essential for the assembly of the USH2 protein complex. It has been reported that espin is an interacting partner protein for whirlin. However, which fragment of whirlin interacts with espin remains unclear. In the present study, whirlin N‑ and C‑terminal fragments in the pEGFP‑C2 vectors were constructed. The recombinant plasmids were transfected into COS‑7 cells to observe the co‑localization by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The interactions between whirlin and espin were investigated by co‑immunoprecipitation using the 293 cell line. It was demonstated that only the whirlin N‑terminal fragment was able to interact with espin and the PR (proline‑rich) region in whirlin may be important for the interaction. However, the present study did not investigate t...
Source: Molecular Medicine Reports - Category: Molecular Biology Tags: Mol Med Rep Source Type: research