The stathmin family -- molecular and biological characterization of novel mammalian proteins expressed in the nervous system.

Stathmin is a ubiquitous phosphoprotein proposed to be a relay integrating various intracellular signaling pathways. Its high phylogenetic conservation and the identification of the related molecules, SCG10 in rat and XB3 in Xenopus, suggested the existence of a stathmin-related family. A systematic PCR-based approach allowed the identification of several novel mammalian sequences of which two coded for expressed members of the stathmin family; the translated RB3 sequence shares 88% amino-acid identity with that of XB3 and is thus its rat homologue, and RB3' corresponds to an alternatively spliced product of the same gene, encoding a truncated form. Within their stathmin-like domain, the alpha helix, probably responsible for coiled-coil protein-protein interactions, is conserved, as well as are two consensus phosphorylation sites; in their N-terminal extension domain, two cystein residues most likely responsible for membrane attachment through palmitoylation, are present in RB3/RB3' as in SCG10. The novel identification and characterization of the corresponding proteins showed that all three are associated with the particulate, membrane-containing fraction. They furthermore display several spots of decreasing pI on two-dimensional immunoblots, suggesting that they are phosphorylated in vivo. As for SCG10, RB3 mRNA is detectable only in the nervous system by in situ hybridization, but at similar levels in the newborn and the adult brain as revealed by Northern blots, whereas SCG10 expression decreases in the adult. Furthermore, RB3 mRNA is undetectable in PC12 cells, whereas SCG10 mRNA increases after treatment with nerve growth factor, inducing neuronal differentiation. In conclusion, we demonstrate here the existence of a highly conserved stathmin-related family in mammals, of which each member seems to play specific roles, related to the control of cell proliferation and activities for stathmin and to that of neuronal differentiation for SCG10, the novel RB3/RB3' proteins being rather related to the expression of differentiated neuronal functions.