Project description:Melanoma exhibits numerous transcriptional cell states including neural crest-like cells as well as pigmented melanocytic cells. How these different cell states relate to distinct tumorigenic phenotypes remains unclear. Here, we use a zebrafish melanoma model to identify a transcriptional program linking the melanocytic cell state to a dependence on lipid droplets, the specialized organelle responsible for lipid storage. Single-cell RNA-sequencing of these tumors show a concordance between genes regulating pigmentation and those involved in lipid and oxidative metabolism. This state is conserved across human melanoma cell lines and patient tumors. This melanocytic state demonstrates increased fatty acid uptake, an increased number of lipid droplets, and dependence upon fatty acid oxidative metabolism. Genetic and pharmacologic suppression of lipid droplet production is sufficient to disrupt cell cycle progression and slow melanoma growth in vivo. Because the melanocytic cell state is linked to poor outcomes in patients, these data indicate a metabolic vulnerability in melanoma that depends on the lipid droplet organelle.
Project description:Lipid droplets are storage organelles at the centre of lipid and energy homeostasis. They have a unique architecture consisting of a hydrophobic core of neutral lipids, which is enclosed by a phospholipid monolayer that is decorated by a specific set of proteins. Originating from the endoplasmic reticulum, lipid droplets can associate with most other cellular organelles through membrane contact sites. It is becoming apparent that these contacts between lipid droplets and other organelles are highly dynamic and coupled to the cycles of lipid droplet expansion and shrinkage. Importantly, lipid droplet biogenesis and degradation, as well as their interactions with other organelles, are tightly coupled to cellular metabolism and are critical to buffer the levels of toxic lipid species. Thus, lipid droplets facilitate the coordination and communication between different organelles and act as vital hubs of cellular metabolism.
Project description:The dynamic nutrient availability and photon flux density of diatom habitats necessitate buffering capabilities in order to maintain metabolic homeostasis. This is accomplished by the biosynthesis and turnover of storage lipids, which are sequestered in lipid droplets (LDs). LDs are an organelle conserved among eukaryotes, composed of a neutral lipid core surrounded by a polar lipid monolayer. LDs shield the intracellular environment from the accumulation of hydrophobic compounds and function as a carbon and electron sink. These functions are implemented by interconnections with other intracellular systems, including photosynthesis and autophagy. Since diatom lipid production may be a promising objective for biotechnological exploitation, a deeper understanding of LDs may offer targets for metabolic engineering. In this review, we provide an overview of diatom LD biology and biotechnological potential.
Project description:The Heterokonta or Stramenopile phylum comprises clades of unicellular photosynthetic species, which are promising for a broad range of biotechnological applications, based on their capacity to capture atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis and produce biomolecules of interest. These molecules include triacylglycerol (TAG) loaded inside specific cytosolic bodies, called the lipid droplets (LDs). Understanding TAG production and LD biogenesis and function in photosynthetic stramenopiles is therefore essential, and is mostly based on the study of a few emerging models, such as the pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum and eustigmatophytes, such as Nannochloropsis and Microchloropsis species. The biogenesis of cytosolic LD usually occurs at the level of the endoplasmic reticulum. However, stramenopile cells contain a complex plastid deriving from a secondary endosymbiosis, limited by four membranes, the outermost one being connected to the endomembrane system. Recent cell imaging and proteomic studies suggest that at least some cytosolic LDs might be associated to the surface of the complex plastid, via still uncharacterized contact sites. The carbon length and number of double bonds of the acyl groups contained in the TAG molecules depend on their origin. De novo synthesis produces long-chain saturated or monounsaturated fatty acids (SFA, MUFA), whereas subsequent maturation processes lead to very long-chain polyunsaturated FA (VLC-PUFA). TAG composition in SFA, MUFA, and VLC-PUFA reflects therefore the metabolic context that gave rise to the formation of the LD, either via an early partitioning of carbon following FA de novo synthesis and/or a recycling of FA from membrane lipids, e.g., plastid galactolipids or endomembrane phosphor- or betaine lipids. In this review, we address the relationship between cytosolic LDs and the complex membrane compartmentalization within stramenopile cells, the metabolic routes leading to TAG accumulation, and the physiological conditions that trigger LD production, in response to various environmental factors.
Project description:When the brain is in a pathological state, the content of lipid droplets (LDs), the lipid storage organelles, is increased, particularly in glial cells, but rarely in neurons. The biology and mechanisms leading to LD accumulation in astrocytes, glial cells with key homeostatic functions, are poorly understood. We imaged fluorescently labeled LDs by microscopy in isolated and brain tissue rat astrocytes and in glia-like cells in Drosophila brain to determine the (sub)cellular localization, mobility, and content of LDs under various stress conditions characteristic for brain pathologies. LDs exhibited confined mobility proximal to mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum that was attenuated by metabolic stress and by increased intracellular Ca2+ , likely to enhance the LD-organelle interaction imaged by electron microscopy. When de novo biogenesis of LDs was attenuated by inhibition of DGAT1 and DGAT2 enzymes, the astrocyte cell number was reduced by ~40%, suggesting that in astrocytes LD turnover is important for cell survival and/or proliferative cycle. Exposure to noradrenaline, a brain stress response system neuromodulator, and metabolic and hypoxic stress strongly facilitated LD accumulation in astrocytes. The observed response of stressed astrocytes may be viewed as a support for energy provision, but also to be neuroprotective against the stress-induced lipotoxicity.