Journal
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY
Volume 6, Issue 12, Pages 1173-1179Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1198
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Redundant gene function frequently hampers investigations of the physiological roles of mammalian proteins. This is the case for Eps8, a receptor tyrosine kinase ( RTK) substrate(1) that participates in the activation of the Rac-specific guanine nucleotide-exchange function of Sos1 ( refs 2 - 5), thereby regulating actin remodelling by RTKs. EPS8-knockout mice, however, exhibit no evident phenotype(2), owing to the redundant function of three other EPS8-related genes(6). Here we show that in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, only one orthologue of the EPS8 gene exists, which gives rise to two alternatively spliced isoforms, EPS-8A and EPS-8B, differing at their carboxyl termini. In the nematode, eps-8 is essential for embryonic development. Furthermore, EPS-8A, but not EPS-8B, is specifically required for proper apical morphogenesis in the intestinal cells. This latter phenotype could be precisely correlated with a previously unknown actin barbed-end-capping activity, which is present in the C terminus of the EPS-8A isoform. Therefore, nematode genetics allowed not only the unmasking of distinct EPS-8-linked phenotypes, but also the definition of a novel function for this molecule in actin dynamics.
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