PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nicola L. Stevenson
AU  - Dylan J.M. Bergen
AU  - Amadeus Xu
AU  - Emily Wyatt
AU  - Freya Henry
AU  - Janine McCaughey
AU  - Laura Vuolo
AU  - Chrissy L. Hammond
AU  - David J. Stephens
TI  - Regulator of calcineurin-2 is a centriolar protein with a role in cilia length control
AID  - 10.1101/188946
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 188946
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/04/04/188946.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/04/04/188946.full
AB  - Almost every cell in the human body extends a primary cilium. Defective cilia function leads to a set of disorders known as ciliopathies characterised by debilitating developmental defects affecting many tissues. Here we report a new role for regulator of calcineurin 2, RCAN2, in primary cilia function. It localises to centrioles and the basal body and is required to maintain normal cilia length. RCAN2 was identified as the most strongly upregulated gene from a comparative RNAseq analysis of cells in which expression of the Golgi matrix protein giantin had been abolished by gene editing. In contrast to previous work where we showed that depletion of giantin by RNAi results in defects in ciliogenesis and in cilia length control, giantin knockout cells generate normal cilia on serum withdrawal. Furthermore, giantin knockout zebrafish show increased expression of RCAN2. Importantly, suppression of RCAN2 expression in giantin knockout cells results in the same defects in cilia length control seen on RNAi of giantin itself. Together these data define RCAN2 as a regulator of cilia function that can compensate for loss of giantin function.