{"doi":"10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101441","title":"A highly conserved zebrafish IMPDH retinal isoform produces the majority of guanine and forms dynamic protein filaments in photoreceptor cells","abstract":"Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is a key regulatory enzyme in the de novo synthesis of the purine base guanine. Dominant mutations in human IMPDH1 cause photoreceptor degeneration for reasons that are unknown. Here, we sought to provide some foundational information on Impdh1a in the zebrafish retina. We found that in zebrafish, gene subfunctionalization due to ancestral duplication resulted in a predominant retinal variant expressed exclusively in rod and cone photoreceptors. This variant is structurally and functionally similar to the human IMPDH1 retinal variant and shares a reduced sensitivity to GTP-mediated inhibition. We also demonstrated that Impdh1a forms prominent protein filaments in vitro and in vivo in both rod and cone photoreceptor cell bodies, synapses, and to a lesser degree, in outer segments. These filaments changed length and cellular distribution throughout the day consistent with diurnal changes in both mRNA and protein levels. The loss of Impdh1a resulted in a substantial reduction of guanine levels, although cellular morphology and cGMP levels remained normal. Our findings demonstrate a significant role for IMPDH1 in photoreceptor guanine production and provide fundamental new information on the details of this protein in the zebrafish retina. Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is a key regulatory enzyme in the de novo synthesis of the purine base guanine. Dominant mutations in human IMPDH1 cause photoreceptor degeneration for reasons that are unknown. Here, we sought to provide some foundational information on Impdh1a in the zebrafish retina. We found that in zebrafish, gene subfunctionalization due to ancestral duplication resulted in a predominant retinal variant expressed exclusively in rod and cone photoreceptors. This variant is structurally and functionally similar to the human IMPDH1 retinal variant and shares a reduced sensitivity to GTP-mediated inhibition. We also demonstrated that Impdh1a forms prominent protein filaments in vitro and in vivo in both rod and cone photoreceptor cell bodies, synapses, and to a lesser degree, in outer segments. These filaments changed length and cellular distribution throughout the day consistent with diurnal changes in both mRNA and protein levels. The loss of Impdh1a resulted in a substantial reduction of guanine levels, although cellular morphology and cGMP levels remained normal. Our findings demonstrate a significant role for IMPDH1 in photoreceptor guanine production and provide fundamental new information on the details of this protein in the zebrafish retina. Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is a universally conserved enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting step in de novo GTP synthesis, converting the precursor inosine-5′-monophosphate (IMP) into xanthine-5′-monophosphate through a covalent intermediate, reducing NAD+ in the process. IMP is the first stable purine nucleotide in the pathway, and it is the precursor of both ATP and GTP. IMPDH plays a critical role in balancing flux between adenine and guanine nucleotide synthesis. Downstream guanine nucleotide products and ATP are allosteric effectors of Impdh (1Buey R.M. Fernandez-Justel D. Marcos-Alcalde I. Winter G. Gomez-Puertas P. de Pereda J.M. Luis Revuelta J. A nucleotide-controlled conformational switch modulates the activity of eukaryotic IMP dehydrogenases.Sci. Rep. 2017; 7: 2648Crossref PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar, 2Buey R.M. Ledesma-Amaro R. Velazquez-Campoy A. Balsera M. Chagoyen M. de Pereda J.M. Revuelta J.L. Guanine nucleotide binding to the Bateman domain mediates the allosteric inhibition of eukaryotic IMP dehydrogenases.Nat. Commun. 2015; 6: 8923Crossref PubMed Scopus (39) Google Scholar, 3Johnson M.C. Kollman J.M. Cryo-EM structures demonstrate human IMPDH2 filament assembly tunes allosteric regulation.Elife. 2020; 9e53243Crossref PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar, 4Labesse G. Alexandre T. Gelin M. Haouz A. Munier-Lehmann H. Crystallographic stud","journal":"Journal of Biological Chemistry","year":2021,"id":191452,"datarank":0.3958585994422889,"base_score":2.639057329615259,"endowment":2.639057329615259,"self_citation_contribution":0.3958585994422889,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.3958585994422889,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":13,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9516,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":640158,"name":"Anika L. Burrell","orcid":"0000-0001-6943-9570","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":757074,"name":"Michelle M. Giarmarco","orcid":"0000-0003-3344-4268","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":40836,"name":"Daniel C. Brock","orcid":"0000-0002-9218-8594","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":507703,"name":"Yekai Wang","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":757764,"name":"Zachary S. Chambers","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337164,"name":"Jianhai Du","orcid":"0000-0002-2019-8128","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":267005,"name":"Justin M. Kollman","orcid":"0000-0002-0350-5827","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":481476,"name":"Susan E. Brockerhoff","orcid":"0000-0002-9851-5525","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":482192,"name":"Whitney M. Cleghorn","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":67,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:49:35.285023Z","pmid":"34813793","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}