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Nucleoskeleton

Uncovering roles for lamin B

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 13, page 3 (2012)Cite this article

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Kim et al. initially set out to confirm whether B-type lamins are essential for transcriptional silencing during embryonic stem (ES) cell differentiation, as had been suggested previously. They generated knockout mice lacking lamin B1, lamin B2 or both B-type lamins. Lamin B-null mice died at birth, owing to difficulties in breathing, and showed several phenotypic abnormalities. However, ES cells from these mice had apparently normal nuclear envelopes and had similar growth rates and expression patterns of pluripotency markers to those of controls. These findings indicate that B-type lamins are not required for the lineage specification of ES cells but may have a role in organogenesis.

Indeed, further investigation showed that B-type lamins are involved in brain development. Specifically, lamin B1 and lamin B2 were found to be required for proper spindle orientation during the division of neuronal progenitors; this is presumably mediated through their previously shown interaction with the dynein regulator NudEL, which is known to have a role in this process. Furthermore, lamin B-null neurons showed defective migration, remaining closer to the ventricular and subventricular zones than controls, which suggests that B-type lamins may also help to define the brain tissue architecture.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Kim, Y. et al. Mouse B-type lamins are required for proper organogenesis but not by embryonic stem cells. Science 24 Nov 2011 (doi:10.1126/science.1211222)

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  2. Shimi, T. et al. The role of nuclear lamin B1 in cell proliferation and senescence. Genes Dev. 8 Dec 2011 (doi:10.1101/gad.179515.111)

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  1. Rachel David
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David, R. Uncovering roles for lamin B. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13, 3 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3257

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