[Frontiers in Bioscience 15, 1075-1085, June 1, 2010]

Cellular roles of the prion protein in association with reggie/flotillin microdomains

Gonzalo P. Solis1, Edward Malaga-Trillo1, Helmut Plattner1, Claudia A. O. Stuermer1

1University of Konstanz, Department of Biology, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
2. Introduction
3. Studying the physiological roles of PrP in zebrafish embryos
4. Roles of PrP at cell-cell contacts
5. Reggie proteins as functional partners of PrP
6. PrP and reggies in T-cells
7. PrP and reggies during the assembly of the focal adhesion complex
8. Are PrP and reggies involved in the assembly of synaptic proteins?
9. Concluding remarks
10. Acknowledgements
11. References

1. ABSTRACT

The prion protein (PrP) has been implicated in many diverse functions, making it difficult to pinpoint its basic physiological role. Our most recent studies in zebrafish, mammalian and invertebrate cells indicate that PrP regulates cell-cell communication, as well cell-matrix interactions at focal adhesions. In addition, we previously have shown that upon antibody-mediated cross-linking, PrP can be induced to cluster in the preformed T-cell cap. Here we review these data and discuss how the spatial link between PrP and the microdomain-forming proteins reggie-1 (flotillin-2) and reggie-2 (flotillin-1) may contribute to PrP signaling, leading to the local assembly of membrane protein complexes at sites involved in cellular communication, such as cell-cell contacts, focal adhesions, the T-cell cap, and synapses.