Goncalves J, Wan Y, Garcia LR. Stearoyl-CoA desaturases sustain cholinergic excitation and copulatory robustness in metabolically aging
C. elegansmales.
iScience 2022;
25:104082. [PMID:
35372802 PMCID:
PMC8968053 DOI:
10.1016/j.isci.2022.104082]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Revised: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Regulated metabolism is required for behaviors as adults age. To understand how lipid usage affects motor coordination, we studied male Caenorhabditis elegans copulation as a model of energy-intensive behavior. Copulation performance drops after 48 h of adulthood. We found that 12–24 h before behavioral decline, males prioritize exploring and copulation behavior over feeding, suggesting that catabolizing stored metabolites, such as lipids, occurs during this period. Because fat-6/7-encoded stearoyl-CoA desaturases are essential for converting the ingested fatty acids to lipid storage, we examined the copulation behavior and neural calcium transients of fat-6(lf); fat-7(lf) mutants. In wild-type males, intestinal and epithelial fat-6/7 expression increases during the first 48 h of adulthood. The fat-6(lf); fat-7(lf) behavioral and metabolic defects indicate that in aging wild-type males, the increased expression of stearoyl-CoA desaturases in the epidermis may indirectly modulate the levels of EAG-family K+ channels in the reproductive cholinergic neurons and muscles.
Tissue distribution of fat-6-encoded stearoyl-CoA desaturase changes in adulthood
Markov modeling shows reduced feeding linked with more exploring in day 2 males
fat-6(lf); fat-7(lf) disrupted behavior can be rescued by epidermal FAT-6
fat-6(lf); fat-7(lf) alters neural and muscular ERG and EAG K+ channel expression
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