As a consequence of the decreased association with dynein, we hypothesized that the HMN7B mutation would disrupt axonal transport while the Perry syndrome mutations would not. To test this hypothesis, we examined the transport

of LAMP1-RFP in mouse primary DRG neurons expressing mutant p150Glued. The HMN7B (G59S) mutation caused a significant decrease in the number of retrograde and anterograde moving vesicles with a corresponding increase in the non-motile fraction (Figures 7A and 7B; Movie S5). We compared the extent of inhibition EGFR phosphorylation induced by the G59S mutation to the inhibition of transport caused by CC1. CC1 is a dominant-negative inhibitor of the dynein-dynactin interaction that effectively dissociates dynein and dynactin (Quintyne et al., 1999). Expression of CC1, similar to the HMN7B mutation and p150Glued depletion (Figure 1), caused a significant decrease in the number moving cargos and a corresponding increase in the nonmotile fraction (Figures 7A and 7B; Movie S4). Immunostaining of neurons expressing the HMN7B mutant protein did not indicate the formation of frank G59S aggregates in the neuron, suggesting that the disruption in transport we observed was not due a steric inhibition

of transport. Instead, these data suggest that HMN7B mutation disrupts the flux CHIR-99021 chemical structure of cargos by disrupting the interaction between dynein with dynactin, similar to the effects of CC1. Importantly, these data suggest that the primary pathogenic mechanism involved in HMN7B is a disruption of axonal transport. Analysis of individual tracks from the kymographs revealed that the HMN7B (G59S) mutation decreased the mean isothipendyl velocities

of both anterograde and retrograde transport (Figures 7C and S7). Additionally the number of pauses per track and the number of motility switches per track were increased (Figures 7D and 7E). Together these data suggest that disruption of the dynein-dynactin interaction affects multiple parameters of dynein-mediated retrograde motility. Dominant-negative disruption decreases mean velocity and also increases the number of pauses and directional switches. In contrast, overexpression of either Perry syndrome (G71R, Q74P) mutations or ΔCAP-Gly p150Glued did not alter transport within the axon (Figure 7; Movies S4 and S5). There were no significant differences in any of the parameters of transport we measured among wild-type, ΔCAP-Gly or the Perry syndrome mutations (Figures 7 and S7). At 2 DIV, we observed no significant cell death induced by expression of the mutations, nor did we observe any change in the total number or apparent size of lysosomes after expression of either the HMN7B (G59S) or Perry syndrome (G71R, Q74P) mutants. These data show that loss of CAP-Gly domain function does not have a dominant effect on transport along the axon and that the primary defect in Perry syndrome, unlike HMN7B, is not a disruption of transport within the axon.