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Gene essentiality of Tubgcp4: dosage effect and autophagy regulation in retinal photoreceptors

ABSTRACT Photoreceptor degeneration and damages often lead to blindness, and the underlying molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. There is also a lot of missing information for establishing the role of macroautophagy/autophagy in the retinopathy. We recently generated knockout mouse lines of the essential gene Tubgcp4 (tubulin, gamma complex associated protein 4) and revealed an interplay between essential genes and autophagy regulation. Complete knockout of Tubgcp4 in mice results in early embryonic lethality due to abnormal spindle assembly, whereas heterozygotes are viable through dosage compensation from one wild-type allele, suggesting a dosage effect of the essential gene. However, haploinsufficiency of TUBGCP4 impairs assembly of TUBG/γ-tubulin ring complexes and disturbs autophagy homeostasis of the retina, with pathological phenotypes of photoreceptor degeneration and a decrease of electroretinography responses. TUBGCP4 can inhibit autophagy by competing with ATG3 to interact with ATG7, thus interfering with lipidation of LC3B. Taken together, these findings demonstrate dosage effect of the essential gene Tubgcp4 for viability of mutant mice, and suggest key roles of TUBGCP4 in embryo development and retinal homeostasis by autophagy regulation. Abbreviations: ATG3: autophagy related 3; ATG7: autophagy related 7; CRISPR: clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats; ERG: electroretinography; HCQ: hydroxychloroquine; LC3B: microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta; NFE2L2: nuclear factor, erythroid 2 like 2; ONL: outer nuclear layer; PPARGC1A: peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha; RB1CC1: RB1 inducible coiled-coil 1; SQSTM1: sequestosome 1; TUBGCP: tubulin, gamma complex associated protein; TUBGRC/γ: TuRCs gamma-tubulin ring complexes