Disruption of Myosin 1e promotes podocyte injury

Myosin 1e (Myo1e) is one of two Src homology 3 domain-containing "long-tailed" type I myosins in vertebrates, whose functions in health and disease are incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that Myo1e localizes to podocytes in the kidney. We generated Myo1e-knockout mice and found that they exhibit proteinuria, signs of chronic renal injury, and kidney inflammation. At the ultrastructural level, renal tissue from Myo1e-null mice demonstrates changes characteristic of glomerular disease, including a thickened and disorganized glomerular basement membrane and flattened podocyte foot processes. These observations suggest that Myo1e plays an important role in podocyte function and normal glomerular filtration.