Zebrafish GDNF and its co-receptor GFR alpha 1 activate the human RET receptor and promote the survival of dopaminergic neurons in vitro

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor ( GDNF) is a ligand that activates, through coreceptor GDNF family receptor alpha-1 (GFR alpha 1) and receptor tyrosine kinase "RET ", several signaling pathways crucial in the development and sustainment of multiple neuronal populations. We decided to study whether non-mammalian orthologs of these three proteins have conserved their function: can they activate the human counterparts? Using the baculovirus expression system, we expressed and purified Danio rerio RET, and its binding partners GFRa1 and GDNF, and Drosophila melanogaster RET and two isoforms of coreceptor GDNF receptor-like. Our results report high-level insect cell expression of posttranslationally modified and dimerized zebrafish RET and its binding partners. We also found that zebrafish GFRa1 and GDNF are comparably active as mammalian cell- produced ones. We also report the first measurements of the affinity of the complex to RET in solution: at least for zebrafish, the Kd for GFR alpha 1-GDNF binding RET is 5.9 mu M. Surprisingly, we also found that zebrafish GDNF as well as zebrafish GFRa1 robustly activated human RET signaling and promoted the survival of cultured mouse dopaminergic neurons with comparable efficiency to mammalian GDNF, unlike E. coli-produced human proteins. These results contradict previous studies suggesting that mammalian GFRa1 and GDNF cannot bind and activate non-mammalian RET and vice versa.Peer reviewe