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Genetic and Dietary Affects on Oxygen Deprivation Response and Survival in C. elegans
Author(s) -
Padilla Pamela,
Garcia Anastasia,
Goy Jo
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.1207.1
Subject(s) - biology , endocrinology , hypoxia (environmental) , medicine , carbohydrate metabolism , glycogen , glucose homeostasis , caenorhabditis elegans , homeostasis , insulin , physiology , oxygen , insulin resistance , genetics , gene , chemistry , organic chemistry
Oxygen deprivation, which is central to many human‐health related issues (Ex: stroke, cardiac and pulmonary disorders) occurs frequently in the elderly and can have a more detrimental affect on individuals who are diabetic or obese. We are using Caenorhabditis elegans to examine how environment, diet, age and genotype influences oxygen deprivation response and survival. C. elegans fed the standard OP50 diet and grown at 20C will survive severe oxygen deprivation (hypoxia and anoxia). However, survival rate is severely decreased if anoxia exposure time is increased or if genetic mutations lead to sensitivity to hypoxia. We are examining the genetic and dietary affects on oxygen deprivation response and survival. Factors associated with long‐term anoxia tolerance include age (3–5 day old adults hermaphrodites survive long‐term anoxia), a decrease in ovulation rate, development at 25C instead of 20C, a diet of HT115 E. coli or pretreatment with the diabetic drug metformin. Long‐term anoxia survival rate is associated with an increase in carbohydrate stores (glycogen, treholose) in the intestine however a glucose‐supplemented diet leads to sensitivity to anoxia exposure, suggesting that a homeostatic balance of carbohydrate stores is important for oxygen deprivation survival. Analysis of mutants identified the following signaling pathways as influencing anoxia survival: insulin‐like signaling ( daf‐2/daf‐16 ), developmental pathways that alter germline function ( glp‐1 ), carbohydrate metabolism ( aak‐2 ), hexosamine signaling ( oga‐1 ) and methyglycoxal protein modifications. Insulin‐signaling, carbohydrate homeostasis, oxidative stress and hexosamine signaling impact diabetes in humans suggesting that C. elegans can be used as a cellular and genetic model to understand the relationship between diet, metabolism, oxygen deprivation stress and disease states such as type II diabetes.