Palmitoylation couples the kinases DLK and JNK3 to facilitate prodegenerative axon-to-soma signaling.

Dual leucine-zipper kinase (DLK; a MAP3K) mediates neuronal responses to diverse injuries and insults through the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) family of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Here, we identified two ways through which DLK is coupled to the neural-specific isoform JNK3 to control prodegenerative signaling. JNK3 catalyzed positive feedback phosphorylation of DLK that further activated DLK and locked the DLK-JNK3 module in a highly active state. Neither homologous MAP3Ks nor a homologous MAPK could support this positive feedback loop. Unlike the related JNK1 isoform JNK2 and JNK3 promote prodegenerative axon-to-soma signaling and were endogenously palmitoylated. Moreover, palmitoylation targeted both DLK and JNK3 to the same axonal vesicles, and JNK3 palmitoylation was essential for axonal retrograde signaling in response to optic nerve crush injury in vivo. These findings provide previously unappreciated insights into DLK-JNK signaling relevant to neuropathological conditions and answer long-standing questions regarding the selective prodegenerative roles of JNK2 and JNK3.