PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Koji Tanabe
AU  - Shuichi Kani
AU  - Takashi Shimizu
AU  - Young-Ki Bae
AU  - Takaya Abe
AU  - Masahiko Hibi
TI  - Atypical Protein Kinase C Regulates Primary Dendrite Specification of Cerebellar Purkinje Cells by Localizing Golgi Apparatus
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3352-10.2010
DP  - 2010 Dec 15
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 16983--16992
VI  - 30
IP  - 50
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/50/16983.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/50/16983.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2010 Dec 15; 30
AB  - Neurons have highly polarized structures that determine what parts of the soma elaborate the axon and dendrites. However, little is known about the mechanisms that establish neuronal polarity in vivo. Cerebellar Purkinje cells extend a single primary dendrite from the soma that ramifies into a highly branched dendritic arbor. We used the zebrafish cerebellum to investigate the mechanisms by which Purkinje cells acquire these characteristics. To examine dendritic morphogenesis in individual Purkinje cells, we marked the cell membrane using a Purkinje cell-specific promoter to drive membrane-targeted fluorescent proteins. We found that zebrafish Purkinje cells initially extend multiple neurites from the soma and subsequently retract all but one, which becomes the primary dendrite. In addition, the Golgi apparatus specifically locates to the root of the primary dendrite, and its localization is already established in immature Purkinje cells that have multiple neurites. Inhibiting secretory trafficking through the Golgi apparatus reduces dendritic growth, suggesting that the Golgi apparatus is involved in the dendritic morphogenesis. We also demonstrated that in a mutant of an atypical protein kinase C (aPKC), Prkci, Purkinje cells retain multiple primary dendrites and show disrupted localization of the Golgi apparatus. Furthermore, a mosaic inhibition of Prkci in Purkinje cells recapitulates the aPKC mutant phenotype. These results suggest that the aPKC cell autonomously controls the Golgi localization and thereby regulates the specification of the primary dendrite of Purkinje cells.