Nature Communications (Feb 2016)

ALS-associated mutant FUS induces selective motor neuron degeneration through toxic gain of function

  • Aarti Sharma,
  • Alexander K. Lyashchenko,
  • Lei Lu,
  • Sara Ebrahimi Nasrabady,
  • Margot Elmaleh,
  • Monica Mendelsohn,
  • Adriana Nemes,
  • Juan Carlos Tapia,
  • George Z. Mentis,
  • Neil A. Shneider

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10465
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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The mechanism by which FUS mutations cause familial ALS remains unclear. Here, the authors use mouse transgenic models to show that a toxic gain-of-function underlies motor neuron degeneration, and that the toxicity of mutant FUS does not depend on a loss or excess of FUS activity.