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Lo WS, Roca M, Dardiry M, Mackie M, Eberhardt G, Witte H, Hong R, Sommer RJ, Lightfoot JW. Evolution and Diversity of TGF-β Pathways are Linked with Novel Developmental and Behavioral Traits. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:msac252. [PMID: 36469861 PMCID: PMC9733428 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling is essential for numerous biologic functions. It is a highly conserved pathway found in all metazoans including the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which has also been pivotal in identifying many components. Utilizing a comparative evolutionary approach, we explored TGF-β signaling in nine nematode species and revealed striking variability in TGF-β gene frequency across the lineage. Of the species analyzed, gene duplications in the DAF-7 pathway appear common with the greatest disparity observed in Pristionchus pacificus. Specifically, multiple paralogues of daf-3, daf-4 and daf-7 were detected. To investigate this additional diversity, we induced mutations in 22 TGF-β components and generated corresponding double, triple, and quadruple mutants revealing both conservation and diversification in function. Although the DBL-1 pathway regulating body morphology appears highly conserved, the DAF-7 pathway exhibits functional divergence, notably in some aspects of dauer formation. Furthermore, the formation of the phenotypically plastic mouth in P. pacificus is partially influenced through TGF-β with the strongest effect in Ppa-tag-68. This appears important for numerous processes in P. pacificus but has no known function in C. elegans. Finally, we observe behavioral differences in TGF-β mutants including in chemosensation and the establishment of the P. pacificus kin-recognition signal. Thus, TGF-β signaling in nematodes represents a stochastic genetic network capable of generating novel functions through the duplication and deletion of associated genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Sui Lo
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max-Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck Ring 9, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Marianne Roca
- Max Planck Research Group Genetics of Behavior, Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior—Caesar, Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, 53175, Bonn, Germany
| | - Mohannad Dardiry
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max-Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck Ring 9, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Marisa Mackie
- Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, CA
| | - Gabi Eberhardt
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max-Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck Ring 9, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hanh Witte
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max-Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck Ring 9, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ray Hong
- Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, CA
| | - Ralf J Sommer
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max-Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, Max-Planck Ring 9, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - James W Lightfoot
- Max Planck Research Group Genetics of Behavior, Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior—Caesar, Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, 53175, Bonn, Germany
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2
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Liu N, Qi B, Zhang Y, Fang S, Sun C, Li Q, Wei X. Bu-Gu-Sheng-Sui decoction promotes osteogenesis via activating the ERK/Smad signaling pathways. Front Pharmacol 2022; 13:976121. [PMID: 36091820 PMCID: PMC9453880 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2022.976121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Osteoporosis is a systemic metabolic skeletal disease, which becomes a common public health problem that seriously endangers people’s health. Bu-Gu-Sheng-Sui decoction (BGSSD) is a safe and effective Chinese medicine formulation for the treatment of osteoporosis. Numerous studies have indicated that it played a significant role in bone anabolism. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Herein, we selected senescence-accelerated mice prone 6 (SAMP6) and MC3T3-E1 cells to study the effects of BGSSD on osteogenesis and then investigated the potential mechanism of BGSSD. Our research found that BGSSD protected the bone mass in SAMP6, increased the expression of osteogenic specific factor Runx2, and improved bone trabecular structure. In vitro, BGSSD accelerated the proliferation and differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells, which was characterized by stimulating the activity of Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and raising the expression of Runx2. Moreover, BGSSD could effectively boost the expression levels of ERK and Smad in SAMP6 and MC3T3-E1. Therefore, we speculate that BGSSD may promote bone formation through ERK/Smad pathways. Collectively, our results highlight the importance of BGSSD as a compound in promoting osteogenic differentiation and osteogenesis, demonstrating that BGSSD may become a latent drug to prevent and treat osteoporosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ning Liu
- Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Baoyu Qi
- Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yili Zhang
- School of Traditional Chinese Medicine and School of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
| | - Shengjie Fang
- Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Chuanrui Sun
- Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Qiuyue Li
- Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xu Wei
- Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
- *Correspondence: Xu Wei,
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Niu B, Nguyen Bach T, Chen X, Raghunath Chandratre K, Isaac Murray J, Zhao Z, Zhang M. Computational modeling and analysis of the morphogenetic domain signaling networks regulating C. elegans embryogenesis. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2022; 20:3653-3666. [PMID: 35891777 PMCID: PMC9289785 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.05.058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2021] [Revised: 05/29/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Caenorhabditis elegans, often referred to as the ‘roundworm’, provides a powerful model for studying cell autonomous and cell–cell interactions through the direct observation of embryonic development in vivo. By leveraging the precisely mapped cell lineage at single cell resolution, we are able to study at a systems level how early embryonic cells communicate across morphogenetic domains for the coordinated processes of gene expressions and collective cellular behaviors that regulate tissue morphogenesis. In this study, we developed a computational framework for the exploration of the morphogenetic domain cell signaling networks that may regulate C. elegans gastrulation and embryonic organogenesis. We demonstrated its utility by producing the following results, i) established a virtual reference model of developing C. elegans embryos through the spatiotemporal alignment of individual embryo cell nuclear imaging samples; ii) integrated the single cell spatiotemporal gene expression profile with the established virtual embryo model by data pooling; iii) trained a Machine Learning model (Random Forest Regression), which predicts accurately the spatial positions of the cells given their gene expression profiles for a given developmental time (e.g. total cell number of the embryo); iv) enabled virtual 4-dimensional tomographic graphical modeling of single cell data; v) inferred the biology signaling pathways that act in each of morphogenetic domains by meta-data analysis. It is intriguing that the morphogenetic domain cell signaling network seems to involve some crosstalk of multiple biology signaling pathways during the formation of tissue boundary pattern. Lastly, we developed the Software tool ‘Embryo aligner version 1.0’ and provided it as an Open Source program to the research community for virtual embryo modeling, and phenotype perturbation analyses (https://github.com/csniuben/embryo_aligner/wiki and https://bioinfo89.github.io/C.elegansEmbryonicOrganogenesisweb/).
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Cho JY, Choi TW, Kim SH, Ahnn J, Lee SK. Morphological Characterization of small, dumpy, and long Phenotypes in Caenorhabditis elegans. Mol Cells 2021; 44:160-167. [PMID: 33692220 PMCID: PMC8019597 DOI: 10.14348/molcells.2021.2236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2020] [Revised: 02/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The determinant factors of an organism's size during animal development have been explored from various angles but remain partially understood. In Caenorhabditis elegans, many genes affecting cuticle structure, cell growth, and proliferation have been identified to regulate the worm's overall morphology, including body size. While various mutations in those genes directly result in changes in the morphological phenotypes, there is still a need for established, clear, and distinct standards to determine the apparent abnormality in a worm's size and shape. In this study, we measured the body length, body width, terminal bulb length, and head size of mutant worms with reported Dumpy (Dpy), Small (Sma) or Long (Lon) phenotypes by plotting and comparing their respective ratios of various parameters. These results show that the Sma phenotypes are proportionally smaller overall with mild stoutness, and Dpy phenotypes are significantly stouter and have disproportionally small head size. This study provides a standard platform for determining morphological phenotypes designating and annotating mutants that exhibit body shape variations, defining the morphological phenotype of previously unexamined mutants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Young Cho
- Department of Life Science, School of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- BK21 PLUS Life Science for BDR Team, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- Research Institute for Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- Present address: Doctor of Dental Surgery Program, University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
| | - Tae-Woo Choi
- Department of Life Science, School of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- BK21 PLUS Life Science for BDR Team, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- Research Institute for Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- Present address: Macrogen Inc., Seoul 08511, Korea
| | - Seung Hyun Kim
- Department of Life Science, School of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- Research Institute for Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
| | - Joohong Ahnn
- Department of Life Science, School of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- BK21 PLUS Life Science for BDR Team, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- Research Institute for Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
| | - Sun-Kyung Lee
- Department of Life Science, School of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- BK21 PLUS Life Science for BDR Team, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
- Research Institute for Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
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Identification, characterization, and expression profiles of insulin-like peptides suggest their critical roles in growth regulation of the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas. Gene 2020; 769:145244. [PMID: 33069806 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2020.145244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2020] [Revised: 10/10/2020] [Accepted: 10/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
The insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) pathway is well-known in regulation of cell growth and proliferation in vertebrates, while its role in invertebrates such as mollusks remains largely unknown. In this study, we performed an extensive multi-omics data mining and identified four insulin-like peptide genes, including ILP, MIRP3, MIRP3-like and ILP7, in the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas. Their potential roles in growth regulation were further investigated using the selectively bred fast-growing C. gigas variety "Haida No.1". Expression profiling and in situ hybridization of these insulin-like peptides suggested their distinct tissue-specific expression pattern, with dominant expression in the neural enrichment tissues such as labial palp, visceral ganglia, adductor muscle, and digestive gland. The expressions of insulin-like peptides were significantly altered by food abundance in a gene-specific fashion. The expression of ILP was reduced during fasting and increased after re-feeding, the expressions of MIRP3 and ILP7 were generally induced during fasting and down-regulated after re-feeding, while the expression of MIRP3-like was firstly up-regulated and then down-regulated during the fasting and re-feeding process. Furthermore, the expressions of all four insulin-like peptide genes were significantly suppressed at low temperature, in accordance with the growth inhibition. These results indicated that all four insulin-like peptides would play critical but different roles in regulation of growth in the oysters. This work provides valuable information for further investigation on growth regulation mechanism in mollusks and molecular assisted breeding of growth with other production traits in the Pacific oyster.
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6
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Andrews DGH. A new method for measuring the size of nematodes using image processing. Biol Methods Protoc 2020; 5:bpz020. [PMID: 32161812 PMCID: PMC6994075 DOI: 10.1093/biomethods/bpz020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Revised: 12/03/2019] [Accepted: 12/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies have been made on nematodes, especially Caenorhabditis Elegans, which are used as a model organism. In many studies, the size of the nematode is important. This article describes a method of measuring the length, volume and surface area of nematodes from photographs. The method uses the imaging software ImageJ, which is in the public domain. Two macros are described. The first converts the images into binary form, and the second uses several built-in functions to measure the length of the worm and its diameter along its length. If it is assumed that the worm has a circular cross-section, then the volume and surface area of the nematode can be calculated. This is a cheap and easy technique.
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Affiliation(s)
- David G H Andrews
- School of Engineering, Technology and Design, Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, Canterbury CT1 1QU, UK
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Mortzfeld BM, Taubenheim J, Klimovich AV, Fraune S, Rosenstiel P, Bosch TCG. Temperature and insulin signaling regulate body size in Hydra by the Wnt and TGF-beta pathways. Nat Commun 2019; 10:3257. [PMID: 31332174 PMCID: PMC6646324 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11136-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2018] [Accepted: 06/07/2019] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
How multicellular organisms assess and control their size is a fundamental question in biology, yet the molecular and genetic mechanisms that control organ or organism size remain largely unsolved. The freshwater polyp Hydra demonstrates a high capacity to adapt its body size to different temperatures. Here we identify the molecular mechanisms controlling this phenotypic plasticity and show that temperature-induced cell number changes are controlled by Wnt- and TGF-β signaling. Further we show that insulin-like peptide receptor (INSR) and forkhead box protein O (FoxO) are important genetic drivers of size determination controlling the same developmental regulators. Thus, environmental and genetic factors directly affect developmental mechanisms in which cell number is the strongest determinant of body size. These findings identify the basic mechanisms as to how size is regulated on an organismic level and how phenotypic plasticity is integrated into conserved developmental pathways in an evolutionary informative model organism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benedikt M Mortzfeld
- Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, 24118, Kiel, Germany
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Rd, Dartmouth, MA, 02747, USA
| | - Jan Taubenheim
- Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, 24118, Kiel, Germany
- Institute for Zoology and Organismic Interactions, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Alexander V Klimovich
- Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, 24118, Kiel, Germany
| | - Sebastian Fraune
- Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, 24118, Kiel, Germany
- Institute for Zoology and Organismic Interactions, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Philip Rosenstiel
- Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Rosalind-Franklin-Straße 12, 24105, Kiel, Germany
| | - Thomas C G Bosch
- Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, 24118, Kiel, Germany.
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8
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Yuan P, Pan LY, Xiong LG, Tong JW, Li J, Huang JA, Gong YS, Liu ZH. Black tea increases hypertonic stress resistance in C. elegans. Food Funct 2018; 9:3798-3806. [PMID: 29932178 DOI: 10.1039/c7fo02017a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Here we identified that BTE (black tea extract), within the studied concentration range, is more effective than GTE (green tea extract) in protecting C. elegans against hypertonic stress, by enhancing survival after exposure to various salts, and alleviating suffered motility loss and body shrinkage. The mechanism of such protection may be due to the ability of black tea to induce the conserved WNK/GCK signaling pathway and down-regulation of the expression levels of nlp-29. Intriguingly, black tea does not relieve hypertonicity-induced protein damage. The findings implicate the potential health benefits of black tea consumed worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pei Yuan
- National Research Center of Engineering Technology for Utilization of Functional Ingredients from Botanicals, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan 410128, China.
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Yang Y, Wang M, Yang P, Wang Z, Huang L, Xu J, Wang W, Yu M, Bu L, Fei J, Huang F. The Aβ Containing Brain Extracts Having Different Effects in Alzheimer's Disease Transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans and Mice. Front Aging Neurosci 2018; 10:208. [PMID: 30108498 PMCID: PMC6079246 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2018] [Accepted: 06/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The deposition of β-sheet rich amyloid in senile plaques is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is thought to cause neuronal dysfunction. Previous studies have strongly implicated that intracerebral infusion of brain extract containing aggregated β-amyloid (Aβ) is able to induce cerebral amyloidosis thus causing neuronal damage and clinical abnormalities in rodents and nonhuman primates, which are reminiscent of a prion-like mechanism. Prion disease has been documented in cases of prion-contaminated food consumption. Methods: We investigated whether cerebral transmission of Aβ was possible via oral administration of Aβ-rich brain extract in non-susceptible and susceptible host mice by immunohistochemistry, western blotting and behavior tests. Also brain extracts were supplied to AD transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans, and paralysis curve were conducted, following detection of Aβ amyloid. RNA sequencing of nematodes was applied then inhibitors for relevant dysregulated genes were used in the paralysis induction. Results: The oral treatment of AD brain extract or normal brain extract neither aggravated nor mitigated the Aβ load, glial activation or the abnormal behaviors in recipient Amyloid precursor protein/presenilin 1 (APP/PS1) mice. Whereas, a significant improvement of AD pathology was detected in worms treated with Aβ-rich or normal brain extracts, which was attributable to the heat-sensitive components of brain extracts. Transcriptome sequencing of CL4176 nematodes suggested that brain extracts could delay worm paralysis through multiple pathways, including ubiquitin mediated proteolysis and Transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) signaling pathway. Inhibitors of the ubiquitin proteasome system and the TGF-β signaling pathway significantly blocked the suppressive effects of brain extracts on worm paralysis. Conclusions: Our results suggest that systemic transmissible mechanisms of prion proteopathy may not apply to β amyloid, at least in terms of oral administration. However, brain extracts strongly ameliorated AD pathology in AD transgenic nematodes partially through TGF-β signaling pathway and ubiquitin mediated proteolysis, which indicated that some natural endogenous components in the mammalian tissues could resist Aβ toxicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yufang Yang
- Jing'an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Institutes of Brain Science, Department of Translational Neuroscience, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Mo Wang
- Jing'an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Institutes of Brain Science, Department of Translational Neuroscience, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ping Yang
- Biomodel Shanghai Research Center for Model Organisms, Shanghai, China
| | - Zishan Wang
- Jing'an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Institutes of Brain Science, Department of Translational Neuroscience, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Li Huang
- Jing'an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Institutes of Brain Science, Department of Translational Neuroscience, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jing Xu
- School of Life Science and Technology, College of Life Sciences, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Wei Wang
- Department of Neurology, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
| | - Mei Yu
- Jing'an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Institutes of Brain Science, Department of Translational Neuroscience, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Liping Bu
- Department of Cardiology and Shanghai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jian Fei
- School of Life Science and Technology, College of Life Sciences, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Fang Huang
- Jing'an District Centre Hospital of Shanghai, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Institutes of Brain Science, Department of Translational Neuroscience, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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Effect of Transforming Growth Factor-β upon Taenia solium and Taenia crassiceps Cysticerci. Sci Rep 2017; 7:12345. [PMID: 28955045 PMCID: PMC5617888 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-12202-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2017] [Accepted: 09/05/2017] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Taeniids exhibit a great adaptive plasticity, which facilitates their establishment, growth, and reproduction in a hostile inflammatory microenvironment. Transforming Growth Factor-β (TGFβ), a highly pleiotropic cytokine, plays a critical role in vertebrate morphogenesis, cell differentiation, reproduction, and immune suppression. TGFβ is secreted by host cells in sites lodging parasites. The role of TGFβ in the outcome of T. solium and T. crassiceps cysticercosis is herein explored. Homologues of the TGFβ family receptors (TsRI and TsRII) and several members of the TGFβ downstream signal transduction pathway were found in T. solium genome, and the expression of Type-I and -II TGFβ receptors was confirmed by RT-PCR. Antibodies against TGFβ family receptors recognized cysticercal proteins of the expected molecular weight as determined by Western blot, and different structures in the parasite external tegument. In vitro, TGFβ promoted the growth and reproduction of T. crassiceps cysticerci and the survival of T. solium cysticerci. High TGFβ levels were found in cerebrospinal fluid from untreated neurocysticercotic patients who eventually failed to respond to the treatment (P = 0.03) pointing to the involvement of TGFβ in parasite survival. These results indicate the relevance of TGFβ in the infection outcome by promoting cysticercus growth and treatment resistance.
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Martin E, Rocheleau-Leclair O, Jenna S. Novel Metrics to Characterize Embryonic Elongation of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. J Vis Exp 2016:e53712. [PMID: 27077374 DOI: 10.3791/53712] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Dissecting the signaling pathways that control the alteration of morphogenic processes during embryonic development requires robust and sensitive metrics. Embryonic elongation of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a late developmental stage consisting of the elongation of the embryo along its longitudinal axis. This developmental stage is controlled by intercellular communication between hypodermal cells and underlying body-wall muscles. These signaling mechanisms control the morphology of hypodermal cells by remodeling the cytoskeleton and the cell-cell junctions. Measurement of embryonic lethality and developmental arrest at larval stages as well as alteration of cytoskeleton and cell-cell adhesion structures in hypodermal and muscle cells are classical phenotypes that have been used for more than 25 years to dissect these signaling pathways. Recent studies required the development of novel metrics specifically targeting either early or late elongation and characterizing morphogenic defects along the antero-posterior axis of the embryo. Here, we provide detailed protocols enabling the accurate measurement of the length and the width of the elongating embryos as well as the length of synchronized larvae. These methods constitute useful tools to identify genes controlling elongation, to assess whether these genes control both early and late phases of this stage and are required evenly along the antero-posterior axis of the embryo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuel Martin
- Department of Chemistry, Pharmaqam, Université du Québec à Montréal
| | | | - Sarah Jenna
- Department of Chemistry, Pharmaqam, Université du Québec à Montréal;
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12
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Goszczynski B, Captan VV, Danielson AM, Lancaster BR, McGhee JD. A 44 bp intestine-specific hermaphrodite-specific enhancer from the C. elegans vit-2 vitellogenin gene is directly regulated by ELT-2, MAB-3, FKH-9 and DAF-16 and indirectly regulated by the germline, by daf-2/insulin signaling and by the TGF-β/Sma/Mab pathway. Dev Biol 2016; 413:112-27. [PMID: 26963674 DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2016.02.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2015] [Revised: 01/29/2016] [Accepted: 02/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The Caenorhabditis elegans vitellogenin genes are transcribed in the intestine of adult hermaphrodites but not of males. A 44-bp region from the vit-2 gene promoter is able largely to reconstitute this tissue-, stage- and sex-specific-expression. This "enhancer" contains a binding site for the DM-domain factor MAB-3, the male-specific repressor of vitellogenesis, as well as an activator site that we show is the direct target of the intestinal GATA factor ELT-2. We further show that the enhancer is directly activated by the winged-helix/forkhead-factor FKH-9, (whose gene has been shown by others to be a direct target of DAF-16), by an unknown activator binding to the MAB-3 site, and by the full C. elegans TGF-β/Sma/Mab pathway acting within the intestine. The vit-2 gene has been shown by others to be repressed by the daf-2/daf-16 insulin signaling pathway, which so strongly influences aging and longevity in C. elegans. We show that the activity of the 44 bp vit-2 enhancer is abolished by loss of daf-2 but is restored by simultaneous loss of daf-16. DAF-2 acts from outside of the intestine but DAF-16 acts both from outside of the intestine and from within the intestine where it binds directly to the same non-canonical target site that interacts with FKH-9. Activity of the 44 bp vit-2 enhancer is also inhibited by loss of the germline, in a manner that is only weakly influenced by DAF-16 but that is strongly influenced by KRI-1, a key downstream effector in the pathway by which germline loss increases C. elegans lifespan. The complex behavior of this enhancer presumably allows vitellogenin gene transcription to adjust to demands of body size, germline proliferation and nutritional state but we suggest that the apparent involvement of this enhancer in aging and longevity "pathways" could be incidental.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Goszczynski
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Vasile V Captan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Alicia M Danielson
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Brett R Lancaster
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - James D McGhee
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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