The Identification of

Stathmin-like Proteins
Essential for Microtubule
Functions in Stathmin
Knockout Mice
Mahima Venkatesh
Jason C. Steel, George F. Atweh,
Charmaine A. Ramlogan-Steel

What is stathmin?
First identified in
1983 by Feurestein
and Cooper
Approx 17kDa
Pseudonyms include
p17, p18, p19, op18,
lap18, oncoprotein
18, prosolin,
metablastin

Roles of Stathmin
Regulation of the cell cycle-important in
mitosis and microtubule dynamics. It is
necessary for the formation of the
mitotic spindle which implies that its
deficiency can lead to problems with
cell division

The role of stathmin in microtubule formation/degradation

Stathmin regulates microtubule

dynamics by promoting
depolymerization of microtubules
and/or preventing polymerization
of tubulin heterodimers

Iancu Rubin, C andAtweh, GF. The role of stathmin in the regulation of the cell
cycle. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry Volume 93,Issue 2,pages 242250,1
October 2004

The role of stathmin in the cell cycle

Iancu Rubin, C andAtweh, GF. The role of stathmin in the regulation of the cell
cycle. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry Volume 93,Issue 2,pages 242250,1
October 2004

Stathmin expression in
cancer

Stathmin overexpression has been observed in many

cancers including prostate, breast and ovarian
carcinomas and acute leukemia.
Increased rate of microtubule turnover is thought to
contribute to the characteristic change in cell shape
associated with malignant cancer cells
Higher levels of stathmin correlate with more
aggressive disease and poorer prognosis.
Yuan et al. showed that stathmin is associated with
tumor progression and early recurrence in patients
with HCC.

Stathmin Knockout Mice

Given these important functions it
was thought that the development of
a stathmin knockout (KO) mouse
would be impossible.
Schubart et al., 1996- developed the
stathmin -/- mouse.
Initially, KO mouse was
phenotypically normal.

Stathmin KO Mouse
Liedtke et al. (2001): stathmin/mice
showed a progressive PNS and CNS
axonopathy with structural damage and
associated functional impairment.
Martel et al.: deficiency in fear and
Parental care affected in females
Zahedi et al. (2006): IRI in KO and WT
mice and found that KO mice had
delayed tubular repair and developed
more tubular fibrosis when compared to
WT littermates.

Weight comparison in WT vs KO mice

30

p= 0.016

25

15

p= 0.037

10

12

3
Age (weeks)

Comparison of WT vs KO Bone Marrow Cell Count

Bone marrow cell counts (107)/mouse

Weight (g)

20

0
WT

KO

Objective
The development of stathmin KO mice
and their limited phenotypic
abnormalities suggest that other
proteins may be compensating for
stathmins role in microtubule
dynamics.
Our projects goal is to identify the
stathmin-like proteins or molecules
which appear to compensate for the
loss of stathmin.

Methods
Examined the expression of 18 stathminlike proteins from cells derived from KO
mice and wild-type mice
Harvested bone marrow and splenocytes
from these mice and differentiated pre-B,
megakaryocytes and
granulocyte/macrophages cells using
different culture conditions.

Methods
Isolated total RNA from cells and performed
reverse transcriptase reactions to generate
cDNA
Using primers specific for the 18 genes,
quantitative PCR reactions were performed to
determine whether any of the genes were up- or
down-regulated in the KO mice
The identification of these proteins may provide
insight into the essential molecular interactions
required for microtubule functions.

Genes
Stathmin 1-4
Clasp 1 Clasp 2, Clip1, Clip 2, Macf1,
Mtap4, Mapre 1, Mapre 2, Mapt, Mid1,
Racgap, Phldb2, Spastin, Katanin1, Kif2c
B-Actin

Katna1 is up-regulated in Stathmin KO

Mice
4

relative gene expression

-2

-4
-10

Results Summary
These results represent 5 separate qPCR
experiments
From the graph, you can see that there is
a an upregulation of Katanin (Katna1) and
to a lesser extent, an upregulation in
Clip2.
There are also downregulations in Mapre
1, Macf1 and Spastin.

Katanin
Results imply that it may be compensating for
loss of stathmin
Function: releases microtubules from their
attachment to a microtubule depolymerization
observed at the poled of spindles during
meiosis and mitosis (Taylor et al p.1000)
May be involved in microtubule release and
depolymerizaion in proliferating cells in
interphase (Taylor et al p.1000)

http://www.hindawi.com/isrn/mb/2012/5962
89/fig2/

Clip 2
Results imply that it may be compensating
for loss of stathmin
The protein encoded by this gene belongs
to the family of cytoplasmic linker proteins
proposed to mediate the interaction between
specific membranous organelles and
microtubules.
Associated with both microtubules and an
organelle called the dendritic lamellar body.

Clip2
Function: Seems to link microtubules to
dendritic lamellar body (DLB), a
membranous organelle predominantly
present inbulbous dendritic appendages of
neurons linked by dendrodendritic gap
junctions. May operates in the control
ofbrain-specific organelle translocatio

Future Studies
Confirm expression of katanin in the KO
mice with western blot
Looking at the effects of stathmin KO
combined with katanin knockdown

References

Iancu Rubin, C andAtweh, GF. The role of stathmin in the regulation of the
cell cycle. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry Volume 93,Issue 2,pages 242
250,1 October 2004
Schubart UK, Yu J, Amat JA, Wang Z, Hoffmann MK, Edelman W. 1996.
Normal Development of mice lacking matablastin (P19): A phosphoprotein
implicated in cell-cycle regulation. J Biol Chem 271:1406214066.
Liedtke W, Leman EE, Fyffe REW, Raine CS, Schubart U. 2002. Stahmindeficient mice develop an age-dependent axonopathy of the central and
peripheral nervous system. Am J Pathol 160:469480.
Martel et al. 2012 Murine GRPR and stathmin control in opposite directions
both cued fear extinction and neural activities of the amygdala and
prefrontal cortex.
Taylor et al. The Evolution of Brain and Behaviour. Garland Science, 2010
Zahedi et al. 2006 Stathmin-deficient mice develop fibrosis and show
delayed recovery from ischemic-reperfusion injury.

Acknowledgements
Charmaine Ramlogan-Steel, M.D.
Jason Steel, Ph.D
George Atweh, M.D.
Brittany and everyone else from the
Atweh Lab

Thank you! Questions?