We have investigated a possible role of the inner nuclear membrane protein, Samp1, in the mitotic machinery. Live cell imaging showed that Samp1aYFP distributed as filamentous structures in the mitotic spindle, partially co-localising with ß-tubulin. Samp1 depletion resulted in an increased frequency of cells with signs of chromosomal mis-segregation and prolonged metaphase, indicating problems with spindle assembly and/or chromosomal alignment. Consistently, mitotic spindles in Samp1 depleted cells contained significantly lower levels of ß-tubulin and γ-tubulin, phenotypes which were rescued by overexpression of Samp1aYFP. We found that Samp1 can bind directly to γ-tubulin and that Samp1 co-precipitated with γ-tubulin and HAUS6 of the Augmin complex in live cells. The levels of Haus6, in the mitotic spindle also decreased after Samp1 depletion. We show that Samp1 is involved in the recruitment of Haus6 and γ-tubulin to the mitotic spindle. Samp1 is the first inner nuclear membrane protein shown to have a function in mitotic spindle assembly.

The ability of iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) to generate any cell type in the body makes them valuable tools for cell replacement therapies. However, differentiation of iPSCs can be demanding, slowand variable. During differentiation chromatin is re-organized and silent dense heterochromatin becomes tethered to the nuclear periphery by processes involving the nuclear lamina and proteins of the INM(inner nuclearmembrane). The INM protein, Samp1 (Spindle AssociatedMembrane Protein 1) interacts with Lamin A/C and the INMprotein Emerin, which has a chromatin binding LEM(Lap2-Emerin-Man1)-domain. In this paperweinvestigate if Samp1 can play a role in the differentiation of iPSCs. Samp1 levels increased as differentiating iPSCs started to express Lamin A/C. Interestingly, even under pluripotent culturing conditions, ectopic expression of Samp1 induced a rapid differentiation of iPSCs, ofwhich some expressed the neuronal marker beta III-tubulin already after 6 days. This suggests that Samp1 is involved in early differentiation of iPSCs and could potentially be explored as a tool to promote progression of the differentiation process.

The eukaryotic nuclear envelope (NE), separates the nucleoplasm from cytoplasm and is made up of two concentric lipid membranes, the outer and the inner nuclear membranes (ONM and INM), the nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and an underlying filamentous nuclear lamina. The INM contains hundreds of unique transmembrane proteins of which only a handful have been characterized. In this thesis, I aimed to understand the functional organization of proteins in the nuclear envelope and I focused on investigating the functions of a recently identified INM transmembrane protein, Samp1. We have developed a novel and robust approach, MCLIP, to identify specific protein-protein interactions taking place in live cells. Using MCLIP, we have shown that Samp1 interacts with proteins of the LINC complex, the nuclear lamina and components of the mitotic spindle. Samp1's specific interactions with a variety of binding partners, suggest that Samp1 plays important roles both in interphase and in mitosis.  We have also shown that Samp1 can provide a binding site at the INM for the GTPase Ran, a master regulator of protein interactions in interphase and in mitosis. Furthermore, we have also investigated the role of Samp1 in cell differentiation using two independent model systems. In human iPSCs, ectopic expression of Samp1 promoted differentiation despite pluripotent culture conditions. In C2C12 myoblast, depletion of Samp1 completely blocked differentiation into myotubes. The two studies complement each other and suggest that Samp1 has a strong differentiation promoting activity. Taken together, the findings in this thesis, give insights on the unexpected and unforeseen roles played by a transmembrane protein in different fundamental cellular process.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) uptake mechanism is still in need of more clarification to have a better understanding of their action in the mediation of oligonucleotide transfection. In this study, the effect on early events (1 h treatment) in transfection by PepFect14 (PF14), with or without oligonucleotide cargo on gene expression, in HeLa cells, have been investigated. The RNA expression profile was characterized by RNA sequencing and confirmed by qPCR analysis. The gene regulations were then related to the biological processes by the study of signaling pathways that showed the induction of autophagy-related genes in early transfection. A ligand library interfering with the detected intracellular pathways showed concentration-dependent effects on the transfection efficiency of splice correction oligonucleotide complexed with PepFect14, proving that the autophagy process is induced upon the uptake of complexes. Finally, the autophagy induction and colocalization with autophagosomes have been confirmed by confocal microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. We conclude that autophagy, an inherent cellular response process, is triggered by the cellular uptake of CPP-based transfection system. This finding opens novel possibilities to use autophagy modifiers in future gene therapy.

Muscles are developed and regenerated in a differentiation process called myogenesis, which involves components of the nuclear envelope. We have investigated Samp1 (Spindle Associated Membrane Protein 1), a transmembrane nuclear envelope protein, which interacts with emerin and lamin A, both of which are linked to Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD). We found that the levels of Samp1 increased seven-fold during differentiation of mouse C2C12 muscle progenitor cells. To test if Samp1 could have a role in myogenesis we developed stable C2C12 knockdown cell lines expressing short hairpin RNA targeting Samp1 expression. The Samp1 depleted C2C12 cells displayed normal mobility and normal distribution of emerin and lamin A. However, Samp1 depletion increased ERK signaling and completely blocked differentiation of C2C12 cells, which failed to express myogenic marker proteins and failed to form myotubes. The block in myogenesis in Samp1 depleted cells was completely rescued by ectopic expression of RNAi resistant human Samp1, showing that Samp1 is required for muscle differentiation.

The organization and function of the nuclear envelope (NE) involves hundreds of nuclear membrane proteins and myriad protein-protein interactions, most of which are still uncharacterized. Many NE proteins interact stably or dynamically with the nuclear lamina or chromosomes. This can make them difficult to extract under non-denaturing conditions, and greatly limits our ability to explore and identify functional protein interactions at the NE. This knowledge is needed to understand nuclear envelope structure and the mechanisms of human laminopathy diseases. This chapter provides detailed protocols for MCLIP (membrane cross-linking immunoprecipitation) identification of novel protein-protein interactions in mammalian cells.

Samp1 is a transmembrane protein of the inner nuclear membrane (INM), which interacts with the nuclear lamina and the Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (LINC) complex in interphase and during mitosis, it localizes to the mitotic spindle. Samp1 was recently found to coprecipitate a protein complex containing Ran, a GTPase with fundamental regulatory functions both in interphase and in mitosis. To investigate the interaction between Samp1 and Ran in further detail, we have designed and expressed recombinant fusion proteins of the Chaetomium thermophilum homolog of Samp1 (Ct. Samp1) and human Ran. Pulldown experiments show that Samp1 binds directly to Ran and that Samp1 binds better to RanGTP compared to RanGDP. Samp1 also preferred RanGTP over RanGDP in living tsBN2 cells. We also show that the Ran binding domain is located between amino acids 75-135 in the nucleoplasmically exposed N-terminal tail of Samp1. This domain is unique for Samp1, without homology in any other proteins in fungi or metazoa. Samp1 is the first known transmembrane protein that binds to Ran and could provide a unique local binding site for RanGTP in the INM. Samp1 overexpression resulted in increased Ran concentrations in the nuclear periphery supporting this idea.

Investigating interactions of proteins in the nuclear envelope (NE) using co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) has previously been difficult or even impossible due to their inherent resistance to extraction. We have developed a novel method, MCLIP (Membrane protein Cross-Link ImmunoPrecipitation), which takes advantage of a cell permeable crosslinker to enable effective detection and analysis of specific interactions of NE proteins in live cells using Western blot. Using MCLIP we show that, in U2OS cells, the integral inner nuclear membrane protein Samp1 interacts with Lamin B1, the LINC (Linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton) complex protein, Sun1 and the soluble small GTPase Ran. The results show that the previously detected in vitro interaction between Samp1 and Emerin also takes place in live cells. In vitro pull down experiments show, that the nucleoplasmic domains of Samp1 and Emerin can bind directly to each other. We also, show that MCLIP is suitable to coprecipitate protein interactions in different stages of the cell cycle.

The nuclear envelope (NE) separating the nucleoplasm from cytoplasm consists of two concentric lipid membranes, the outer (ONM) and inner (INM) nuclear membranes, the nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and an underlying nuclear lamina network. The INM contains more than 100 unique transmembrane proteins of which only a few have been characterized. This thesis is focused on one of these INM proteins, Samp1 (Spindle associated membrane protein 1)

Protein-protein interactions in the NE have been difficult to study due to the resistance of NE proteins to extraction. We have established a reversible in vivo crosslinking immunoprecipitation method called, MCLIP (Membrane protein Cross-Link ImmunoPrecipitation) to overcome this problem. Using MCLIP we were able to show that, Samp1 specifically interacts with Emerin, Lamin B1, Sun1 and the small GTPase Ran. We also showed that, the nucleoplasmic domain of Samp1 and Emerin can interact with each other directly.

Furthermore, we investigated the functional role of Samp1 in mitosis. Samp1 depletion gave rise to aneuploid phenotypes and signs of destabilization of the mitotic spindle. Using MCLIP, in mitotic cells, we showed that, Samp1 interacts with Ran and Importin-β, two key players of mitotic spindle assembly. We observed that, Samp1 modulates the level of Importin-β and NuMA in the mitotic spindle, which may explain the mitotic defects and aberrant phenotypes observed in Samp1 depleted cells. These findings show that Samp1 plays an important role in spindle stabilization and chromosome segregation.