Project description:The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans is a heme auxotroph that requires the coordinated actions of HRG-1 heme permeases to transport environmental heme into the intestine and HRG-3, a secreted protein, to deliver intestinal heme to other tissues including the embryo. Here we show that heme homeostasis in the extraintestinal hypodermal tissue is facilitated by the transmembrane protein HRG-2. Systemic heme deficiency upregulates hrg-2 mRNA expression over 200-fold in the main body hypodermal syncytium hyp 7. HRG-2 is a type I membrane protein which binds heme and localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum and apical plasma membrane. Cytochrome heme profiles are aberrant in HRG-2 deficient worms, a phenotype that is partially suppressed by heme supplementation. Heme-deficient yeast strain, ectopically expressing worm HRG-2, reveal significantly improved growth at submicromolar concentrations of exogenous heme. Taken together, our results implicate HRG-2 as a facilitator of heme utilization in the C. elegans hypodermis and provide a mechanism for regulation of heme homeostasis in an extraintestinal tissue. Two experimental groups: Group 1: three 4um Controls vs. three 4uM hrg-2 Mutants; Group 2: three 20um Controls vs. three 20uM hrg-2 Mutants
Project description:The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans is a heme auxotroph that requires the coordinated actions of HRG-1 heme permeases to transport environmental heme into the intestine and HRG-3, a secreted protein, to deliver intestinal heme to other tissues including the embryo. Here we show that heme homeostasis in the extraintestinal hypodermal tissue is facilitated by the transmembrane protein HRG-2. Systemic heme deficiency upregulates hrg-2 mRNA expression over 200-fold in the main body hypodermal syncytium hyp 7. HRG-2 is a type I membrane protein which binds heme and localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum and apical plasma membrane. Cytochrome heme profiles are aberrant in HRG-2 deficient worms, a phenotype that is partially suppressed by heme supplementation. Heme-deficient yeast strain, ectopically expressing worm HRG-2, reveal significantly improved growth at submicromolar concentrations of exogenous heme. Taken together, our results implicate HRG-2 as a facilitator of heme utilization in the C. elegans hypodermis and provide a mechanism for regulation of heme homeostasis in an extraintestinal tissue.
Project description:Hemes are essential but potentially cytotoxic cofactors that participate in critical and diverse biological processes. Although the pathway and intermediates for heme biosynthesis have been well defined, the intracellular networks which mediate heme trafficking remain unknown. Caenorhabditis elegans and related helminths are natural heme auxotrophs requiring environmental heme for growth and development. We exploited this auxotrophy to identify HRG-1 and HRG-4 in C. elegans and show that they are essential for heme homeostasis and normal vertebrate development. We demonstrate that heme deficiency upregulates expression of hrg-4 and its evolutionarily conserved paralog hrg-1. Depletion of either HRG-1 or HRG-4 in worms results in disruption of organismal heme sensing and abnormal response to heme analogs. HRG-1 and HRG-4 are novel transmembrane proteins that bind heme and have evolutionarily conserved functions. Transient knockdown of hrg-1 in zebrafish leads to hydrocephalus, yolk tube malformations, and, most strikingly, profound defects in erythropoiesis - phenotypes that are fully rescued by worm HRG-1. These findings reveal unanticipated and conserved pathways for cellular heme trafficking in animals that defines the paradigm for eukaryotic heme transport. Uncovering the mechanisms of heme transport in C. elegans will provide novel insights into human disorders of heme metabolism and generate unique anthelmintics to combat worm infestations. Keywords: dose-response
Project description:Hemes are essential but potentially cytotoxic cofactors that participate in critical and diverse biological processes. Although the pathway and intermediates for heme biosynthesis have been well defined, the intracellular networks which mediate heme trafficking remain unknown. Caenorhabditis elegans and related helminths are natural heme auxotrophs requiring environmental heme for growth and development. We exploited this auxotrophy to identify HRG-1 and HRG-4 in C. elegans and show that they are essential for heme homeostasis and normal vertebrate development. We demonstrate that heme deficiency upregulates expression of hrg-4 and its evolutionarily conserved paralog hrg-1. Depletion of either HRG-1 or HRG-4 in worms results in disruption of organismal heme sensing and abnormal response to heme analogs. HRG-1 and HRG-4 are novel transmembrane proteins that bind heme and have evolutionarily conserved functions. Transient knockdown of hrg-1 in zebrafish leads to hydrocephalus, yolk tube malformations, and, most strikingly, profound defects in erythropoiesis - phenotypes that are fully rescued by worm HRG-1. These findings reveal unanticipated and conserved pathways for cellular heme trafficking in animals that defines the paradigm for eukaryotic heme transport. Uncovering the mechanisms of heme transport in C. elegans will provide novel insights into human disorders of heme metabolism and generate unique anthelmintics to combat worm infestations. Experiment Overall Design: As a first-step toward understanding heme homeostasis at the molecular level, we performed genome-wide microarrays to identify genes that are transcriptionally regulated by heme. For microarray analysis, synchronized F2 larvae were re-inoculated in mCeHR-2 medium supplemented with 4, 20 or 500 uM hemin and harvested at the late L4 stage for mRNA prep and probe hybridization to Affymetrix C. elegans Whole Genome Expression Arrays. Total RNA from three biological replicates were used at each hemin concentration. Data from worms grown in mCeHR-2 medium with 4 and 500 uM hemin were compared to data from worms grown in 20 uM hemin. Microarray data were verified with Microarray Suite 5.0 (Affymetrix) and Robust Multichip Average Method (RMA, R package). Results from MAS 5.0 and RMA analyses provided with 375 genes that showed 1.6 fold change in 4 and 500 uM hemin when compared to data from 20 uM hemin samples. Statistical analyses identified changes in 375 genes from worms grown in either 4 or 500 µM heme (see Methods). The microarray results were validated by qRT-PCR (Supplementary Fig. 1) and the 375 heme-responsive genes were classified into eight categories based on their relative changes in gene expression (Table I). The data from the microarray study show that �1.9 % of genes in the worm genome are transcriptionally responsive to heme. Notably, of the 375 genes, 164 had some sequence identity in human genome databases at the amino acid level, and >90 % of the genes had no ascribed function in the C.
Project description:Transcriptional response induced by Wnt signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans affects lateral and ventral hypodermal cell development