The Batten disease Palmitoyl Protein Thioesterase 1 gene regulates neural specification and axon connectivity during Drosophila embryonic development.

Palmitoyl Protein Thioesterase 1 (PPT1) is an essential lysosomal protein in the mammalian nervous system whereby defects result in a fatal pediatric disease called Infantile Neuronal Ceroids Lipofuscinosis (INCL). Flies bearing mutations in the Drosophila ortholog Ppt1 exhibit phenotypes similar to the human disease: accumulation of autofluorescence deposits and shortened adult lifespan. Since INCL patients die as young children, early developmental neural defects due to the loss of PPT1 are postulated but have yet to be elucidated. Here we show that Drosophila Ppt1 is required during embryonic neural development. Ppt1 embryos display numerous neural defects ranging from abnormal cell fate specification in a number of identified precursor lineages in the CNS, missing and disorganized neurons, faulty motoneuronal axon trajectory, and discontinuous, misaligned, and incorrect midline crossings of the longitudinal axon bundles of the ventral nerve cord. Defects in the PNS include a decreased number of sensory neurons, disorganized chordotonal neural clusters, and abnormally shaped neurons with aberrant dendritic projections. These results indicate that Ppt1 is essential for proper neuronal cell fates and organization; and to establish the local environment for proper axon guidance and fasciculation. Ppt1 function is well conserved from humans to flies; thus the INCL pathologies may be due, in part, to the accumulation of various embryonic neural defects similar to that of Drosophila. These findings may be relevant for understanding the developmental origin of neural deficiencies in INCL.