Expression of multiple formins in adult tissues and during developmental stages of mouse brain

• Each adult tissue expresses multiple formins.
• Multiple formins express during different developmental stages of brain.
• Differential level of expression of few formins is seen during developmental stages of brain.

Formins are highly conserved heterogeneous family of proteins with several isoforms having significant contribution in multiple cellular functions. Formins play crucial role in remodelling of actin cytoskeleton and thus play important role in cell motility. Formins are also involved in many cellular activities like determining cell polarity, cytokinesis and morphogenesis. Formins are multi domain protein with characteristic homodimeric formin homology 2 (FH2) domain. It nucleates the actin filaments and its activity is regulated by the presence of characteristic formin homology 1 (FH1) domain. In higher mammals like human and mouse fifteen different formin isoforms are present. However the function and expression pattern of each and every formin in different adult tissues are not well characterized. Here we have found that multiple formins are expressing in each adult tissue of mouse, irrespective of their origin from the germ layer. Formins are also expressing from early stage of development to the adulthood in brain. The expression of many formins in a single tissue of adult mouse indicates that regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics by formins may be crucial for physiological processes like wound healing, tissue repairing, exocytosis, endocytosis, synapse formation and maintenance. Expression of FMNL2 and Fhdc1 are high in adult mouse brain as compare to embryonic stages. Higher expression of FMNL2 and Fhdc1 indicates that FMNL2 and Fhdc1 might be very important for the adult brain functions.