Matthews LR et al. (1994) Worm Breeder's Gazette "A Potential C. elegans E2F Homolog: Is it zyg-9?"

Galas S, Matthews LR

[Worm Breeder's Gazette, 1994]

A potential C. elegans E2F homolog: Is it zyg-9? Lisa Matthews and Simon Galas, CRBM, CNRS Montpellier, France

Berger S et al. (2018) Lab Chip "Correction: Long-term C. elegans immobilization enables high resolution developmental studies in vivo."

Aegerter-Wilmsen T, DeMello A, Berger S, Casadevall I Solvas X, Hengartner M, Hajnal A, Lattmann E

[Lab Chip, 2018]

Correction for 'Long-term C. elegans immobilization enables high resolution developmental studies in vivo' by Simon Berger et al., Lab Chip, 2018, 18, 1359-1368.

Zetka M-C et al. (1993) Worm Breeder's Gazette "Mapping of the rec-1 Mutation"

Rose AM, Zetka M-C

[Worm Breeder's Gazette, 1993]

MAPPING OF THE rec-1 MUTATION Monique-Claire Zetka and Ann M. Rose, Dept. of Medical Genetics, 6174 University Blvd., University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., V6T lZ3.

Anna Elisabetta Salcini et al. (2006) European Worm Meeting "C. elegans Intersectin: A Synaptic Adaptor Protein Coupling Endocytic Membrane Traffic to Exocytosis"

Anna Elisabetta Salcini, Simon Rose, Maria Grazia Malabarba, Pier Paolo Di Fiore

[European Worm Meeting, 2006]

Anna Elisabetta Salcini1, Simon Rose1, Maria Grazia Malabarba2, Pier Paolo Di Fiore2 . Intersectin family proteins are scaffold proteins believed to play a role in endocytosis. Intersectins have a modular organization with two N-terminal EH domains (Eps15 homology), a central coiled-coil region and five SH3 domains in the C-terminal region. A long, brain-specific isoform contains at the C-terminal an additional DH domain (Dbl homology), a PH (Pleckstrin homology) and a C2 domain. Intersectin proteins were identified by several groups based on their ability to bind proteins involved in a variety of processes, such as endocytosis, exocytosis, signal transduction pathways and actin remodeling. Recently, in vivo studies in Drosophila melanogaster indicated a function for Dap160/Intersectin in synaptic development and in the stabilization of an endocytic macromolecular complex, since the levels of several endocytic molecules such as dynamin, synaptojanin and endophilin are severely reduced in dap160 mutant NMJs (Marie et al. 2004; Koh et al., 2004). We will present the analysis of Y116A8C.36 gene, encoding for ITSN-1 protein, the unique orthologue of the intersectin family in C. elegans. We will discuss our data showing that 1) ITSN-1, differently then in Drosophila melanogaster, is not an essential gene in C.elegans. 2) ITSN-1 protein is mainly expressed in neuronal cells and it is localized in synaptic vesicle-rich regions. 3) ITSN-1 plays a role in synaptic transmission, controlling acetylcholine release. 4) itsn-1 genetically interacts with dyn-1 and ehs-1 genes, both implicated in compensatory endocytosis at the synapses. 5) ITSN-1 protein interacts in vivo with EHS-1 and Dynamin proteins.. Our in vivo studies challenge the participation of ITSN-1 protein in exocytic processes and in the control of synaptic vesicle cycling suggesting a role for ITSN-1 in temporal and spatial coordination of exocytosis and endocytosis.

Gaelle Lettier et al. (2008) European Worm Meeting "Role of H3K27 lysine demethylases during development"

Anna Elisabetta Salcini, Gaelle Lettier, Simon Rose

[European Worm Meeting, 2008]

A strict regulation of gene expression is essential for cellular identity. and differentiation during development of eukaryotic organisms. At the. level of DNA, gene expression can be regulated by changes in the structure. of chromatin through, for example, post-translational modifications of. histone tails. Among the vast variety of known histone tail modifications,. histone methylation has been shown to be involved in important cellular. processes such as heterochromatin formation, X-chromosome inactivation,. transcriptional regulation and DNA repair. Moreover, aberrant histone. methylation has been linked to several diseases such as cancer.. We are particularly interested in the methylation of histone lysines and. more specifically in the methylation state of lysine 27 at histone 3. (H3K27). The H3K27me3 (tri-methyl) mark, associated to transcriptional. repression, is a unique mark for stem cell state and decreases during. differentiation into somatic cells. While the Polycomb group proteins are. known to mediate tri-methylation of H3K27, the Jumonji C (JmjC) domain-. containing proteins, UTX and JMJD3, were recently shown to catalyze its. demethylation. However, little is known about the biological functions of. these enzymes in vivo.. In C. elegans, four homologs of the human H3K27 demethylases are identified. (D2021.1/utx-1, F18E9.5, C29F7.6, F23D12.5). To determine their in vivo. role(s), mutants and RNA interfered animals of all these homologs were. analyzed. The resulting phenotypes, associated to loss or reduction of. H3K27me3 demethylase activity, point to functional roles during embryonic. and early larval development, in vulva and gonad formation as well as in. fertility. Results from gene expression microarrays, identifying genes. which expression is affected by the loss of histone demethylase activity,. will also be presented at the meeting.

Gaelle Lettier et al. (2008) Development & Evolution Meeting "Role of H3K27 Lysine Demethylases during Development"

Simon Rose, Anna Elisabetta Salcini, Gaelle Lettier

[Development & Evolution Meeting, 2008]

A strict regulation of gene expression is essential for cellular identity and differentiation during development of eukaryotic organisms. At the level of DNA, gene expression can be regulated by changes in the structure of chromatin through, for example, post-translational modifications of histone tails. Among the vast variety of known histone tail modifications, histone methylation has been shown to be involved in important cellular processes such as heterochromatin formation, X-chromosome inactivation, transcriptional regulation and DNA repair. Moreover, aberrant histone methylation has been linked to several diseases such as cancer. We are particularly interested in the methylation of histone lysines and more specifically in the methylation state of lysine 27 at histone 3 (H3K27). The H3K27me3 (tri-methyl) mark, associated to transcriptional repression, is a unique mark for stem cell state and decreases during differentiation into somatic cells. While the Polycomb group proteins are known to mediate tri-methylation of H3K27, the Jumonji C (JmjC) domain-containing proteins, UTX and JMJD3, were recently shown to catalyze its demethylation. However, little is known about the biological functions of these enzymes in vivo. In C. elegans, four homologs of the human H3K27 demethylases are identified (D2021.1/utx-1, F18E9.5, C29F7.6, F23D12.5). To determine their in vivo role(s), mutants and RNA interfered animals of all these homologs were analyzed. The resulting phenotypes, associated to loss or reduction of H3K27me3 demethylase activity, point to functional roles during embryonic and early larval development, in vulva and gonad formation as well as in fertility. Results from gene expression microarrays, identifying genes which expression is affected by the loss of histone demethylase activity, will also be presented at the meeting.

Liu Y et al. (2018) Int J Mol Med "Kushui Rose (R.SetatexR.Rugosa) decoction exerts antitumor effects in C. elegans by downregulating Ras/MAPK pathway and resisting oxidative stress."

Liu Y, Chen P, Li H, Wang X, Fei D, Wu Z, Li Y, Zhang Z, Zhi D

[Int J Mol Med, 2018]

Kushui rose (R.SetatexR.Rugosa) (KR) is a traditional Chinese medicine proven to be a potent antioxidant, and used for thousands of years. Approximately 30% of all human cancers relevant to mutational activated Ras, and over-activated Ras are accompanied by increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Thus, one way of developing anticancer drugs is to reduce ROS accumulation. Therefore, KR was predicted to have potential to combat over-activated Ras-related cancer. C.elegans with let60(gf)/ras mutant, which exhibited tumor-like symptoms of the multivulva phenotype, was employed to determine the effect of KR on Ras/MAPK pathway. Other strains of worms and H2DCF-DA dye were also applied to study the antioxidant stress capacity of KR. This study was aimed to determine whether KR has a potential effect on combat over-activated Ras-related cancer through resistance to oxidative stress. Our results showed that Kushui rose decoction (KRD) has potent antioxidant activity invitro, and can inhibit over-activated Ras invivo. Further, KRD significantly suppressed over-activated Ras/MAPK pathway by regulating oxidative stress-related proteins, such as forkhead transcription factor (DAF-16), glutathione S-transferase-4 (GST-4), superoxide dismutases(SODs) and heat shock protein-16.2(HSP-16.2). However, essential oil and hydrosol of KR had no effect on over-activated Ras. Thus these results reminded us that people usually soak rose in hot water to prepare 'rose tea' as an effective way for health care. Thus, KRD was demonstrated to be a potential drug candidate for combating over-activated Ras-related cancer as an antioxidant.

Antonopoulos CG et al. (2015) PLoS Comput Biol "Do Brain Networks Evolve by Maximizing Their Information Flow Capacity?"

Antonopoulos CG, Pinto SE, Baptista MS, Srivastava S

[PLoS Comput Biol, 2015]

We propose a working hypothesis supported by numerical simulations that brain networks evolve based on the principle of the maximization of their internal information flow capacity. We find that synchronous behavior and capacity of information flow of the evolved networks reproduce well the same behaviors observed in the brain dynamical networks of Caenorhabditis elegans and humans, networks of Hindmarsh-Rose neurons with graphs given by these brain networks. We make a strong case to verify our hypothesis by showing that the neural networks with the closest graph distance to the brain networks of Caenorhabditis elegans and humans are the Hindmarsh-Rose neural networks evolved with coupling strengths that maximize information flow capacity. Surprisingly, we find that global neural synchronization levels decrease during brain evolution, reflecting on an underlying global no Hebbian-like evolution process, which is driven by no Hebbian-like learning behaviors for some of the clusters during evolution, and Hebbian-like learning rules for clusters where neurons increase their synchronization.

Ho F et al. (1992) Worm Breeder's Gazette "The Second Approach to Aligning the Genetic and Physical Maps on Chromosome I: PCR mapping of Potential Deletions"

Ho F, Janmaat A, Ha TT, Melathopoulos A, Liu T, Rose AM, Salmon R

[Worm Breeder's Gazette, 1992]

For the right portion of the chromosome, where we don't have a high density of mapped mutants, we are using the PCR mapping protocol of Barstead and Waterston (in 1991 C Mot Cyto 20:69) to position gamma-induced lethals (potential deletions). Using hIn1 as a balancer (Zetka and Rose, 1992 Genetics), we recovered several lethals linked to unc-101 and lev-11 which were induced with 1500 rads of gamma radiation. Primers were kindly provided by Junho Lee in Paul Sternberg's lab and Yuko Kozono in Bob Waterstons's lab. As controls for the PCR reactions, we are using a deletion outside the hIn1 region, hDf8 ,and primers from bli-4 (Ken Peters, unpublished) and AHH sequences (Prasad, Starr and Rose, in press). hDf8 deletes AHH, but not bli-4 .We have tested nine of our gamma induced lethals to date and one of these hDf14 (h1277 )is lacking DNA for the primer set INT 7-10 from unc-101 sequences provided by Junho Lee.

M Tsou et al. (1999) International C. elegans Meeting "Identification of Genes Required for Spindle Orientation in the Embryo"

M Tsou, LS Rose, AP Hayashi

[International C. elegans Meeting, 1999]

The timing and orientation of cell division are critical for normal development. We have taken a genetic approach to identify genes involved in spindle orientation, and thus cell division pattern, in C. elegans (Rose and Kemphues, 1998. Devel . 125; Tsou and Rose, unpublished). In embryos, cells of the P lineage exhibit nuclear rotation events which orient the spindle successively on the same axis, while in cells of the AB lineage, spindles are oriented transverse to the previous axis. We isolated maternal effect lethal mutations and examined embryos from the mutant lines for alterations in the normal cleavage pattern. From screening approximately 10,000 haploid genomes, we obtained mutations that define six genes required for normal spindle orientation at the 2-cell stage. We obtained multiple alleles of let-99 , ooc-5 and ooc-3 (at a rate comparable to that of some par mutants) suggesting that these genes may play a maternal specific role in spindle orientation. In contrast, we isolated only one allele of spn-1 , spn-2 and spn-3 . This and the behavior of the spn mutations in trans to deletions (see abstract by DeBella and Rose) suggests that the spn genes may have lethal or sterile null phenotypes. Mutations in let-99 and the spn genes cause defects in both the AB and P lineages without having obvious effects on one-cell polarity. let-99 embryos exhibit two major defects. First, there are reversals of the normal pattern of spindle orientations. Second, both the nuclear-centrosome complex and the spindle appear to be unstable in position. Spindle orientation defects and nuclear-centrosome position instability are also seen in gpb-1 maternally depleted embryos (Zwaal et al 1996. Cell 86; L. Rose, unpublished). We are currently exploring the relationship among let-99 , the spn genes and gpb-1 by a variety of techniques, in addition to searching for LET-99 interacting proteins using the two-hybrid approach.