Takamiya S et al. (2016) Parasitol Int "Large-scale purification of active liquid-cultured Caenorhabditis elegans using a modified Baermann apparatus."

Mita T, Takamiya S

[Parasitol Int, 2016]

A method for purifying active liquid-cultured Caenorhabditis elegans using a modified Baermann apparatus is described. This method consists of two parts: 1) large-scale cultivation of C. elegans in liquid medium and 2) preparation of active nematodes without contamination using the Baermann apparatus.

Takamiya S et al. (1999) Arch Biochem Biophys "Free-living nematodes Caenorhabditis elegans possess in their mitochondria an additional rhodoquinone, an essential component of the eukaryotic fumarate reductase system."

Takamiya S, Taka H, Matsuda M, Murayama K, Matsui T, Aoki T

[Arch Biochem Biophys, 1999]

The respiratory chain of Caenorhabditis elegans was characterized in mitochondria isolated from aerobically grown nematodes. Nematode mitochondria contain ubiquinone-9 as a major component and rhodoquinone-9 as a minor component. The ratio of ubiquinone-9/rhodoquinone-9 is higher in C. elegans mitochondria than in mitochondria from second-stage larvae of Ascaris suum, the free-living stage of porcine gut-dwelling nematode. The individual oxidoreductase activities comprising succinate oxidase and the amount of substrate-reducible cytochromes are comparable to those of mitochondria from second-stage larvae of A. suum. The specific activity of fumarate reductase is lower in C. elegans mitochondria than in mitochondria from second-stage larvae of A. suum, but still higher than in mammalian mitochondria. These results indicate that the free-living nematode C. elegans is capable of synthesizing rhodoquinone, as distinguished from aerobic mammalian species, although its mitochondria appear more aerobic than A. suum larval mitochondria.

Takamiya S et al. (2015) Parasitol Int "Bioinformatic identification of cytochrome b5 homologues from the parasitic nematode ascaris suum and the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans highlights the crucial role of A. suum adult-specific secretory cytochrome b5 in parasitic adaptation."

Hashimoto M, Yokota T, Yamakura F, Ueno T, Sugio S, Mita T, Takamiya S, Fujimura T, Yamasaki H, Nakajima Y

[Parasitol Int, 2015]

We previously reported that adult Ascaris suum possesses NADH-metmyoglobin and NADH-methaemoglobin reductase systems that are located in the cells of the body wall and in the extracellular perienteric fluid, respectively, which helps them adapt to environmental hypoxia by recovering the differential functions of myoglobin and haemoglobin. A. suum cytochrome b5, an adult-specific secretory protein and an essential component of the NADH-metmyo (haemo) globin reductase system, has been extensively studied, and its unique nature has been determined. However, the relationship between A. suum cytochrome b5 and the canonical cytochrome b5 proteins, from the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is unclear. Here, we have characterised four cytochrome b5-like proteins from C. elegans (accession numbers: CAB01732, CCD68984, CAJ58492, and CAA98498) and three from A. suum (accession numbers: ADY48796, ADY46277, and ADY48338) and compared them with A. suum cytochrome b5in silico. Bioinformatic and molecular analyses showed that CAA98498 from C. elegans is equivalent of A. suum cytochrome b5, which was not expressed as a mature mRNA. Further, the CAA98498 possessed no secretory signal peptide, which occurs in A. suum cytochrome b5 precursor. These results suggest that this free-living nematode does not need a haemoprotein such as the A. suum cytochrome b5 and highlight the crucial function of this A. suum adult-specific cytochrome b5 in parasitic adaptation.

Vinci CR et al. (2007) J Biol Chem "Recognition of age-damaged (R,S)-adenosyl-L-methionine by two methyltransferases in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae."

Vinci CR, Clarke SG

[J Biol Chem, 2007]

The biological methyl donor, S adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), can exist in two diastereoisomeric states with respect to its sulfonium ion. The "S" configuration, (S,S)AdoMet, is the only form that is produced enzymatically as well as the only form used in almost all biological methylation reactions. Under physiological conditions, however, the sulfonium ion can spontaneously racemize to the "R" form, producing (R,S)AdoMet. As of yet, (R,S)AdoMet has no known physiological function and may inhibit cellular reactions. In this study, two enzymes have been found in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that are capable of recognizing (R,S)AdoMet and using it to methylate homocysteine to form methionine. These enzymes are the products of the SAM4 and MHT1 genes, previously identified as homocysteine methyltransferases dependent upon AdoMet and S-methylmethionine respectively. We find here that Sam4 recognizes both (S,S) and (R,S)AdoMet, but its activity is much higher with the R,S form. Mht1 reacts with only the R,S form of AdoMet while no activity is seen with the S,S form. R,S-specific homocysteine methyltransferase activity is also shown here to occur in extracts of Arabidopsis thaliana, Drosophila melanogaster, and Caenorhabditis elegans, but has not been detected in several tissue extracts of Mus musculus. Such activity may function to prevent the accumulation of (R,S)AdoMet in these organisms.

Fanning S et al. (2018) Mol Cell "Lipidomic Analysis of -Synuclein Neurotoxicity Identifies Stearoyl CoA Desaturase as a Target for Parkinson Treatment."

Lou Y, Haque A, Freyzon Y, Farese RV, Terry-Kantor E, Hofbauer HF, Termine D, Welte MA, Barrasa MI, Imberdis T, Noble T, Lindquist S, Clish CB, Jaenisch R, Pincus D, Nuber S, Sandoe J, Kohlwein SD, Kim TE, Ho GPH, Ramalingam N, Walther TC, Baru V, Selkoe D, Srinivasan S, Landgraf D, Soldner F, Dettmer U, Fanning S, Becuwe M, Newby G

[Mol Cell, 2018]

In Parkinson's disease (PD), -synuclein (S) pathologically impacts the brain, a highly lipid-rich organ. We investigated how alterations in S or lipid/fattyacid homeostasis affect each other. Lipidomic profiling of human S-expressing yeast revealed increases in oleic acid (OA, 18:1), diglycerides, and triglycerides. These findings were recapitulated in rodent and human neuronal models of S dyshomeostasis (overexpression; patient-derived triplication or E46K mutation; E46K mice). Preventing lipid droplet formation or augmenting OA increased S yeast toxicity; suppressing the OA-generating enzyme stearoyl-CoA-desaturase (SCD) was protective. Genetic or pharmacological SCD inhibition ameliorated toxicity in S-overexpressing rat neurons. In a C.elegans model, SCD knockout prevented S-induced dopaminergic degeneration. Conversely, we observed detrimental effects of OA on S homeostasis: in human neural cells, excess OA caused S inclusion formation, which was reversed by SCD inhibition. Thus, monounsaturated fatty acid metabolism is pivotal for S-induced neurotoxicity, and inhibiting SCD represents a novel PD therapeutic approach.

Vandecandelaere I et al. (2017) PLoS One "Metabolic activity, urease production, antibiotic resistance and virulence in dual species biofilms of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus."

Deforce D, Coenye T, Van Nieuwerburgh F, Vandecandelaere I

[PLoS One, 2017]

In this paper, the metabolic activity in single and dual species biofilms of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus isolates was investigated. Our results demonstrated that there was less metabolic activity in dual species biofilms compared to S. aureus biofilms. However, this was not observed if S. aureus and S. epidermidis were obtained from the same sample. The largest effect on metabolic activity was observed in biofilms of S. aureus Mu50 and S. epidermidis ET-024. A transcriptomic analysis of these dual species biofilms showed that urease genes and genes encoding proteins involved in metabolism were downregulated in comparison to monospecies biofilms. These results were subsequently confirmed by phenotypic assays. As metabolic activity is related to acid production, the pH in dual species biofilms was slightly higher compared to S. aureus Mu50 biofilms. Our results showed that S. epidermidis ET-024 in dual species biofilms inhibits metabolic activity of S. aureus Mu50, leading to less acid production. As a consequence, less urease activity is required to compensate for low pH. Importantly, this effect was biofilm-specific. Also S. aureus Mu50 genes encoding virulence-associated proteins (Spa, SplF and Dps) were upregulated in dual species biofilms compared to monospecies biofilms and using Caenorhabditis elegans infection assays, we demonstrated that more nematodes survived when co-infected with S. epidermidis ET-024 and S. aureus mutants lacking functional spa, splF or dps genes, compared to nematodes infected with S. epidermidis ET-024 and wild- type S. aureus. Finally, S. epidermidis ET-024 genes encoding resistance to oxacillin, erythromycin and tobramycin were upregulated in dual species biofilms and increased resistance was subsequently confirmed. Our data indicate that both species in dual species biofilms of S. epidermidis and S. aureus influence each other's behavior, but additional studies are required necessary to elucidate the exact mechanism(s) involved.

Vandecandelaere I et al. (2014) Pathog Dis "Protease production by Staphylococcus epidermidis and its effect on Staphylococcus aureus biofilms."

Coenye T, Vandecandelaere I, Depuydt P, Nelis HJ

[Pathog Dis, 2014]

Due to the resistance of Staphylococcus aureus to several antibiotics, treatment of S. aureus infections is often difficult. As an alternative to conventional antibiotics, the field of bacterial interference is investigated. Staphylococcus epidermidis produces a serine protease (Esp) which inhibits S. aureus biofilm formation and which degrades S. aureus biofilms. In this study, we investigated the protease production of 114 S. epidermidis isolates, obtained from biofilms on endotracheal tubes (ET). Most of the S. epidermidis isolates secreted a mixture of serine, cysteine and metalloproteases. We found a link between high protease production by S. epidermidis and the absence of S. aureus in ET biofilms obtained from the same patient. Treating S. aureus biofilms with the supernatant (SN) of the most active protease producing S. epidermidis isolates resulted in a significant biomass decrease compared to untreated controls, while the number of metabolically active cells was not affected. The effect on the biofilm biomass was mainly due to serine proteases. Staphylococcus aureus biofilms treated with the SN of protease producing S. epidermidis were thinner with almost no extracellular matrix. An increased survival of Caenorhabditis elegans, infected with S. aureus Mu50, was observed when the SN of protease positive S. epidermidis was added.

Kamp F et al. (2010) EMBO J "Inhibition of mitochondrial fusion by -synuclein is rescued by PINK1, Parkin and DJ-1."

Haass C, Hegermann J, Giese A, Eimer S, Kamp F, Lutz AK, Nuscher B, Wender N, Brunner B, Winklhofer KF, Exner N, Beyer K, Bartels T

[EMBO J, 2010]

Aggregation of -synuclein (S) is involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and a variety of related neurodegenerative disorders. The physiological function of S is largely unknown. We demonstrate with in vitro vesicle fusion experiments that S has an inhibitory function on membrane fusion. Upon increased expression in cultured cells and in Caenorhabditis elegans, S binds to mitochondria and leads to mitochondrial fragmentation. In C. elegans age-dependent fragmentation of mitochondria is enhanced and shifted to an earlier time point upon expression of exogenous S. In contrast, siRNA-mediated downregulation of S results in elongated mitochondria in cell culture. S can act independently of mitochondrial fusion and fission proteins in shifting the dynamic morphologic equilibrium of mitochondria towards reduced fusion. Upon cellular fusion, S prevents fusion of differently labelled mitochondrial populations. Thus, S inhibits fusion due to its unique membrane interaction. Finally, mitochondrial fragmentation induced by expression of S is rescued by coexpression of PINK1, parkin or DJ-1 but not the PD-associated mutations PINK1 G309D and parkin 1-79 or by DJ-1 C106A.

El Mouridi, Sonia et al. (2021) MicroPubl Biol

AlHarbi, Sarah, El Mouridi, Sonia, Frkjr-Jensen, Christian

[MicroPubl Biol, 2021]

For El Mouridi, S; AlHarbi, S; Frkjr-Jensen, C (2021). A histamine-gated channel is an efficient negative selection marker for C. elegans transgenesis. microPublication Biology. 10.17912/micropub.biology.000349.

Nam K et al. (1997) Mol Cell Biol "Severe growth defect in a Schizosaccharomyces pombe mutant defective in intron lariat degradation."

Nam K, Boeke JD, Devine SE, Trambley J, Lee G

[Mol Cell Biol, 1997]

The cDNAs and genes encoding the intron lariat-debranching enzyme were isolated from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe based on their homology with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene. The cDNAs were shown to be functional in an interspecific complementation experiment; they can complement an S. cerevisiae dbr1 null mutant. About 2.5% of budding yeast S. cerevisiae genes have introns, and the accumulation of excised introns in a dbr1 null mutant has little effect on cell growth. In contrast, many S. pombe genes contain introns, and often multiple introns per gene, so that S. pombe is estimated to contain approximately 40 times as many introns as S. cerevisiae. The S. pombe dbr1 gene was disrupted and shown to be nonessential. Like the S. cerevisiae mutant, the S. pombe null mutant accumulated introns to high levels, indicating that intron lariat debranching represents a rate-limiting step in intron degradation in both species. Unlike the S. cerevisiae mutant, the S. pombe dbr1::leu1+ mutant had a severe growth defect and exhibited an aberrant elongated cell shape in addition to an intron accumulation phenotype. The growth defect of the S. pombe dbr1::leu1+ strain suggests that debranching activity is critical for efficient intron RNA degradation and that blocking this pathway interferes with cell growth.