Alteration of the stability of Bag-1 protein in the control of olfactory neuronal apoptosis

Normal apoptosis occurs continuously in the olfactory neuroepithelium of adult vertebrates, making it a useful model for studying neuronal apoptosis. Here we demonstrate that overexpression of the anti-apoptotic Bag-1 gene in olfactory neuronal cells confers a strong resistance to apoptosis. Conversely decreased levels of Bag-1 were found to precede a massive wave of olfactory neuronal apoptosis triggered by synaptic target ablation. We show that the decrease is brought about by ubiquitination and subsequent degradation of the Bag-1 protein. The ring finger protein Siah-2 is a likely candidate for the ubiquitination reaction since Siah-2 mRNA accumulated in lesioned olfactory neuroepithelium and overexpression of Siah-2 stimulated Bag-1 ubiquitination and degradation in transient expression assays. These results together identify destabilization of Bag-1 as a necessary step in olfactory neuronal apoptosis.