Antifungal innate immunity in C. elegans: PKCdelta links G protein signaling and a conserved p38 MAPK cascade.

Antifungal innate immunity in C. elegans: PKCdelta links G protein signaling and a conserved p38 MAPK cascade.

PHA-4 organogenesis

The pha-4 locus encodes a forkhead box A (FoxA/HNF3) transcription factor homolog that specifies organ identity for Caenorhabditis elegans pharyngeal cells. We used microarrays to identify pharyngeal genes and analyzed those genes to determine which were direct PHA-4 targets. Our data suggest that PHA-4 directly activates most or all pharyngeal genes. Furthermore, the relative affinity of PHA-4 for different TRTTKRY (R = A/G, K = T/G, Y = T/C) elements modulates the onset of gene expression, providing a mechanism to activate pharyngeal genes at different developmental stages. We suggest that direct transcriptional regulation of entire gene networks may be a common feature of organ identity genes. A genotyping experiment design type classifies an individual or group of individuals on the basis of alleles, haplotypes, SNP's. Keywords: genotyping_design

PQM-1 controls hypoxic survival via regulation of lipid metabolism.

Worms were exposed to 5 mM CoCl2 at the early day 1 of adulthood stage for 6 hr and 20 hr. Untreated worms were used as controls. Worms were collected, RNA isolated and hybridized on 4x44K C. elegans arrays (Agilent) at 60C overnight, as previously described 1). Three biological replicates were used. Significant differentially-expressed gene sets were identified using one or two-class SAM 2). 1) Shaw, W. M., Luo, S., Landis, J., Ashraf, J. & Murphy, C. T. The C. elegans TGF-beta Dauer pathway regulates longevity via insulin signaling. Curr Biol 17, 1635-1645, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.08.058 (2007). 2) Tusher, V. G., Tibshirani, R. & Chu, G. Significance analysis of microarrays applied to the ionizing radiation response. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98, 5116-5121, doi:10.1073/pnas.091062498 (2001).

Transcriptomic fingerprints of C. elegans exposed to superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles coated with a monolayer of bovine serum albumin (BSA-SPIONs)

Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) are currently being investigated for a range of biomedical applications. Their use have been related with different cytotoxic mechanisms including the generation of oxidative stress and the induction of metal detoxification pathways, among others. Different NP coatings are being explored, among them albumin which has been applied in some drugs delivery systems. We have investigated the molecular mechanisms responsive to in-house fabricated SPIONs coated with bovine serum albumin (BSA-SPIONs) in the nematode C. elegans to compare in vivo findings with previous in vitro studies. BSA-SPIONs (500 g/ml) affected the transcriptional response of glycan metabolic pathways related to innate immune response, xenobiotics degradation, and triggered a lysosomal response, indicating a relevant biological role of this cellular compartment in the response to this nanoparticle treatment in C. elegans. Remarkably, key biological functions such as apoptosis or protein processing were not affected with significance despite the high dose of exposure.

A microRNA microarray analysis of C.elegans Parkinsons disease models

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in human brain development and maintenance. To search for miRNAs potentially involved with molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Parkinsons disease (PD), we utilized miRNA microarrays to identify expression changes of 115 annotated Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans) miRNAs in human -synuclein A53T transgenic, dopamine deficient catecholamine transporter gene cat-1 mutant and parkin gene pdr-1 mutant C.elegans strains. Twelve miRNAs were found regulated differentially in -synuclein transgenic C. elegans, five in cat-1 mutants and three in pdr-1 mutants. The family of miR64/65 appeared co-under-expressed in -synuclein and cat-1 strains and members of let-7 family co-under-expressed (except miR-241 over-expressed) in a-synuclein and pdr-1 strains. Class H serpentine receptor (srh) family of G-protein-coupled receptor genes were computationally identified to be highly over-represented target candidates for regulated miRNAs.These results indicate that miRNAs are misregulated in C. elegans PD models and suggest a role for these molecules in the disease pathogenesis.

A gene expression fingerprint of C. elegans embryonic motor neurons.

Background: Differential gene expression specifies the highly diverse cell types that constitute the nervous system. With its sequenced genome and simple, well-defined neuroanatomy, the nematode C. elegans is a useful model system in which to correlate gene expression with neuron identity. The UNC-4 transcription factor is expressed in thirteen embryonic motor neurons where it specifies axonal morphology and synaptic function. These cells can be marked with an unc-4::GFP reporter transgene. Here we describe a powerful strategy, Micro-Array Profiling of C. elegans cells (MAPCeL), and confirm that this approach provides a comprehensive gene expression profile of unc-4::GFP motor neurons in vivo. Results: Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) was used to isolate unc-4::GFP neurons from primary cultures of C. elegans embryonic cells. Microarray experiments detected 6,217 unique transcripts of which ~1,000 are enriched in unc-4::GFP neurons relative to the average nematode embryonic cell. The reliability of these data was validated by the detection of known cell-specific transcripts and by expression in UNC-4 motor neurons of GFP reporters derived from the enriched data set. In addition to genes involved in neurotransmitter packaging and release, the microarray data include transcripts for receptors to a remarkably wide variety of signaling molecules. The added presence of a robust array of G-protein pathway components is indicative of complex and highly integrated mechanisms for modulating motor neuron activity. Over half of the enriched genes (537) have human homologs, a finding that could reflect substantial overlap with the gene expression repertoire of mammalian motor neurons. Conclusion: We have described a microarray-based method, MAPCeL, for profiling gene expression in specific C. elegans motor neurons and provide evidence that this approach can reveal candidate genes for key roles in the differentiation and function of these cells. These methods can now be applied to generate a gene expression map of the C. elegans nervous system. Keywords: expression profile