Enzymes of heterotherms: LDH of hibernating and normothermic little brown bats, Myotis lucifugus

MicroRNA expression patterns in the brown fat of hibernating 13-lined ground squirrels

The sequence diversity of microRNAs (miRNAs) allows these potent regulators of mRNA fate to bind multiple transcripts, giving them the power to inhibit diverse cellular processes. Therefore, miRNAs may regulate metabolic rate suppression (also termed torpor), an adaptation used by capable species to reduce energy expenditure, minimize tissue damage, and prolong life. Small RNA-sequencing of brown fat from control (37 °C) and torpid (5-8 °C) ground squirrels revealed a central role for miRNAs in torpor. Unsupervised clustering analysis of all 319 conserved miRNAs showed separation of control and torpor samples, which was supported by PCA analysis. Of the 76 miRNAs that were differentially expressed, 45 were upregulated during torpor. KEGG and GO analyses suggested these miRNAs inhibit genes within the ribosome, oxidative phosphorylation, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathways. Some of the most downregulated miRNAs (miR-1-3p, miR-206 and miR-133a/b) had significant Pearson correlation coefficients, suggesting these myomiRs may be co-expressed in control animals. Only 3 of the 16 enriched KEGG pathways were less targeted by miRNAs during torpor, including cytokine-cytokine receptor interactions and the coagulation and complement cascades, suggesting epigenetic or post-translation modifications may inhibit these potentially damaging processes. Alternatively, their activation could promote damage sensing, wound repair, and improve tissue homeostasis. Overall, miRNA-seq analysis of brown fat revealed a strong role for miRNAs in the downregulation of central metabolic processes necessary for MRS, and highlighted miRNAs that could be inhibited by antagomiRs to promote brown fat activity in potential obesity treatments, or that could be used to replicate torpor in non-hibernating mammals.

Comparative enzymology-new insights from studies of an "old" enzyme, lactate dehydrogenase

Comparative enzymology explores the molecular mechanisms that alter the properties of enzymes to best fit and adapt them to the biotic demands and abiotic stresses that affect the cellular environment in which these protein catalysts function. For many years, comparative enzymology was primarily concerned with analyzing enzyme functional properties (e.g. substrate affinities, allosteric effectors, responses to temperature or pH, stabilizers, denaturants, etc.) in order to determine how enzyme properties were optimized to function under changing conditions. More recently it became apparent that posttranslational modifications of enzymes play a huge role in metabolic regulation. At first, such modifications appeared to target just crucial regulatory enzymes but recent work is showing that many dehydrogenases are also targets of posttranslational modification leading to substantial changes in enzyme properties. The present article focuses in particular on lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) showing that stress-induced changes in enzyme properties can be linked with reversible posttranslational modifications; e.g. changes in the phosphorylation state of LDH occur in response to dehydration stress in frogs and anoxia exposure of turtles and snails. Furthermore, these studies show that LDH is also a target of other posttranslational modifications including acetylation, methylation and ubiquitination that change in response to anoxia or dehydration stress. Selected new methods for exploring posttranslational modifications of dehydrogenases are discussed and new challenges for the future of comparative enzymology are presented that will help to achieve a deeper understanding of biochemical adaptation through enzyme regulation.