The vertebrate endocytic receptor CUBAM, consisting of three cubilin monomers complexed with a single amnionless molecule, plays a major role in protein reabsorption in the renal proximal tubule. Here, we show that Drosophila CUBAM is a tripartite complex composed of dAmnionless and two cubilin paralogues Cubilin and Cubilin-2, and that it is required for nephrocyte slit diaphragm (SD) dynamics. Loss of CUBAM-mediated endocytosis induces dramatic morphological changes in nephrocytes and promotes enlarged ingressions of the external membrane and SD mislocalisation. These phenotypes result in part from an imbalance between endocytosis, strongly impaired in CUBAM mutants, and exocytosis in these highly active cells. Noteworthy, rescuing receptor-mediated endocytosis by Megalin/LRP2 or Rab5 expression only partially restores SD-positioning in CUBAM mutants, suggesting a specific requirement of CUBAM in SD degradation and/or recycling. This finding and the reported expression of CUBAM in podocytes argue for a possible unexpected conserved role of this endocytic receptor in vertebrate SD remodelling.

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© 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
2021
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