Chicken synucleins: cloning and expression in the developing embryo

Synucleins comprise a family of small intracellular proteins that have rece ntly attracted considerable attention because of their involvement in human diseases. Mutations of alpha -synuclein has been found in several families with hereditary early-onset Parkinson's disease and accumulation of this p rotein in characteristic cytoplasmic inclusions is a pathohistological hall mark of several neurodegenerative diseases that have been recently classifi ed as 'alpha;-synucleinopathies' (reviewed in Brain Res. Bull. 50 (1999) 46 5; J. Neurosci. Res. 58 (1999) 120; Philos. Trans. R. Sec. Lend. Biol. Sci. 354 (1999) 1101; Brain Pathol. 9 (1999) 733). Aggregates of beta -synuclei n and persyn (gamma -synuclein) also have been found in dystrophic neurites associated with Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases (Proc. Na tl. Acad. Sci. USA 96 (1999) 13450; and our unpublished observations). More over, persyn has been implicated in malignization of breast tumours (Cancer Res. 57 (1997) 759; Cancer Res. 59 (1999) 742; Hum. Mel. Genet. 7 (1998) 1 417). All synucleins have, distinct, although overlapping, patterns of expr ession in the embryonic, postnatal and adult mammalian nervous systems, sug gesting important, although still not clear, biological functions in neuron al developing. Chicken embryo is a unique object for developmental studies that allows in vivo manipulations not always possible for mammalian embryos . Studies of synucleins expression in this model system could shed light on their functions in the developing nervous system. We cloned three chicken synucleins from the embryonic neural cDNA libraries and studied their expre ssion in normal chicken embryonic tissues by Northern and in situ hybridiza tion with specific probes. Our results demonstrate that primary structures and expression patterns of synucleins are similar in birds and mammals, sug gesting that conserved function of synucleins is important for embryonic de velopment of vertebrates. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.