Title:
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Investigating the role of the cytoskeleton in assembly and stabilisation of erythroid membrane protein complexes during erythropoiesis
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A particularly intriguing aspect of the erythroblast enucleation process, which creates an
anucleate immature erythrocyte called a reticulocyte, is how the sorting of proteins between
the nascent reticulocyte and the extruding nucleus occurs. A large-scale proteomic analysis
was conducted on isolated pure populations of reticulocytes and extruded nuclei, and the
results for key proteins of interest confirmed using western blotting. Many erythroid
membrane and cytoskeletal proteins partitioned predominantly or exclusively to the
reticulocyte. In contrast, nuclear proteins, endoplasmic reticulum proteins and a contingent of
membrane proteins were enriched in the extruded nuclei. This confirms enucleation as a key
remodelling event in the development of an erythrocyte where important proteins needed for
the erythrocyte are retained, but unwanted or excess proteins are removed with the nucleus.
During this thesis lentiviral transduction methodology was further developed to achieve both
knockdown of cytoskeletal proteins and overexpression of cytoskeleton fragments to disrupt
the erythroid cytoskeleton and elucidate the role membrane-cytoskeletal interactions play in
membrane multi-protein complex assembly and stabilisation during erythropoiesis. shRNA
mediated knockdown of ankyrin achieved the most striking results with >95% reduction in
ankyrin levels. The expression profiles of key erythroid membrane and cytoskeletal proteins
following ankyrin knockdown were monitored throughout terminal differentiation by flow
cytometry and western blotting. Ankyrin is required for the stabilisation of members of the
ankyrin complex throughout terminal differentiation, and these dependencies become
established at different stages for different members within the complex. The rhesus subcomplex
members Rh, RhAG and CD47 were depleted from the basophilic erythroblast stage in
the absence of ankyrin, with additional loss during enucleation. Protein 4.2 also exhibited early
depletion at the basophilic stage. Interestingly, band 3 and GPA levels were comparable to the
control throughout the early stages of terminal differentiation when ankyrin was depleted, but
then exhibited decreased retention with the reticulocyte during enucleation. RhAG loss at the
basophilic stage was shown to be due to enhanced internalisation and turnover.
The work presented here has greatly increased our understanding of the assembly of
membrane multi-protein complexes and the protein sorting processes that occur during
human terminal differentiation and enucleation, and has provided an explanation for the
secondary protein deficiencies observed in Hereditary Spherocytosis where the attachment of
membrane proteins in the bilayer to the underlying cytoskeleton is disrupted.
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