TC10β/CDC42 GTPase activating protein is required for the growth of cortical neuron dendrites

Neuronal morphogenesis plays an important role in neuronal development. TC10β/CDC42 GTPase-activating protein (TCGAP) is known to be a brain-enriched multiple domain protein, but its role in neuronal development process remains poorly understood. In the present study, we showed that TCGAP positively regulated dendritic outgrowth and spine formation in developing cortical neurons. Knocking down TCGAP by RNA interference led to a decrease in the overall length of dendrite arbors and the number of dendrite branches both in vitro and in vivo. Overexpressing TCGAP in cultured cortical neurons increased dendritic outgrowth and branching. Moreover, overexpressing TCGAP lead to an increase of spine density while knocking-down TCGAP decreased spine density in vivo. The defect by downregulating TCGAP could be rescued by expressing a knock-down resistant form of TCGAP both in vivo and in vitro. In contrast, neither downregulating nor overexpressing TCGAP had any effect on axonal morphogenesis in primary cortical neuron cultures. Together, our findings suggest that TCGAP regulates neuronal morphogenesis in developing cortical neurons at both early and late stage.

▶Overexpression of TCGAP led to increases of dendritic outgrowth in vitro. ▶Knocking down TCGAP led to decreases of dendritic outgrowth both in vitro and in vivo. ▶TCGAP positively regulates spine formation in vivo in a late stage of neuron development. ▶TCGAP is not essential for axonal morphogenesis.