"We measured the total cellular ROS in
mekk-3 RNAi worms and found that the levels were significantly lower than that of control RNAi-treated worms, comparable to the ROS generated in
eat-2(
ad1116) (Fig. 4E). It appears that the reduced ROS levels are a result of metabolic shift to beta-oxidation and not due to active ROS detoxification. This is supported by gene expression profiling by microarray and qRT-PCR analysis where none of the five worm superoxide dismutase genes were significantly upregulated when
mekk-3 is knocked down (Fig. S6D)."