P-type ATPase TAT-2 negatively regulates monomethyl branched-chain fatty acid mediated function in post-embryonic growth and development in C. elegans

Sphingolipid profiling reveals differential functions of sphingolipid biosynthesis isozymes of Caenorhabditis elegans

Multiple isozymes are encoded in the Caenorhabditis elegans genome for the various sphingolipid biosynthesis reactions, but the contributions of individual isozymes are characterized only in part. We developed a simple but effective reversed-phase liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (RPLC-MS/MS) method that enables simultaneous identification and quantification of ceramides (Cer), glucosylceramides (GlcCer), and sphingomyelins (SM) from the same MS run. Validating this sphingolipid profiling method, we show that nearly all 47 quantifiable sphingolipid species found in young adult worms were reduced upon RNA interference (RNAi) of sptl-1 or elo-5, which are both required for synthesis of the id17:1 sphingoid base. We also confirm that HYL-1 and HYL-2, but not LAGR-1, constitute the major ceramide synthase activity with different preference for fatty acid substrates, and that CGT-3, but not CGT-1 and CGT-2, plays a major role in producing GlcCers. Deletion of sms-5 hardly affected SM levels. RNAi of sms-1, sms-2, and sms-3 all lowered the abundance of certain SMs with an odd-numbered N-acyl chains (mostly C21 and C23, with or without hydroxylation). Unexpectedly, sms-2 RNAi and sms-3 RNAi elevated a subset of SM species containing even-numbered N-acyls. This suggests that sphingolipids containing even-numbered N-acyls could be regulated separately, sometimes in opposite directions, from those containing odd-numbered N-acyls, which are presumably monomethyl branched chain fatty acyls. We also find that ceramide levels are kept in balance with those of GlcCers and SMs. These findings underscore the effectiveness of this RPLC-MS/MS method in studies of C. elegans sphingolipid biology.

Monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids-a pearl dropped in the ocean

As an emerging group of bioactive fatty acids, monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids (mmBCFAs) have sparked the interest of many researchers both domestically and internationally. In addition to documenting the importance of mmBCFAs for growth and development, there is increasing evidence that mmBCFAs are highly correlated with obesity and insulin resistance. According to previous pharmacological investigations, mmBCFAs also exhibit anti-inflammatory effects and anticancer properties. This review summarized the distribution of mmBCFAs, which are widely found in dairy products, ruminants, fish, and fermented foods. Besides, we discuss the biosynthesis pathway in different species and detection methods of mmBCFAs. With the hope to unveil their mechanisms of action, we recapitulated detailed the nutrition and health benefits of mmBCFAs. Furthermore, this study provides a thorough, critical overview of the current state of the art, upcoming difficulties, and trends in mmBCFAs.

Ciliogenesis requires sphingolipid-dependent membrane and axoneme interaction

Cilium formation and regeneration requires new protein synthesis, but the underlying cytosolic translational reprogramming remains largely unknown. Using ribosome footprinting, we performed global translatome profiling during cilia regeneration in Chlamydomonas and uncovered that flagellar genes undergo an early transcriptional activation but late translational repression. This pattern guided our identification of sphingolipid metabolism enzymes, including serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT), as essential regulators for ciliogenesis. Cryo-electron tomography showed that ceramide loss abnormally increased the membrane-axoneme distance and generated bulged cilia. We found that ceramides interact with intraflagellar transport (IFT) particle proteins that IFT motors transport along axoneme microtubules (MTs), suggesting that ceramide-IFT particle-IFT motor-MT interactions connect the ciliary membrane with the axoneme to form rod-shaped cilia. SPT-deficient vertebrate cells were defective in ciliogenesis, and SPT mutations from patients with hereditary sensory neuropathy disrupted cilia, which could be restored by sphingolipid supplementation. These results reveal a conserved role of sphingolipid in cilium formation and link compromised sphingolipid production with ciliopathies.

The Hippo Pathway Is Essential for Maintenance of Apicobasal Polarity in the Growing Intestine of Caenorhabditis elegans

Although multiple determinants for establishing polarity in membranes of epithelial cells have been identified, the mechanism for maintaining apicobasal polarity is not fully understood. Here, we show that the conserved Hippo kinase pathway plays a role in the maintenance of apicobasal polarity in the developing intestine of Caenorhabditis elegans We screened suppressors of the mutation in wts-1-the gene that encodes the LATS kinase homolog, deficiency of which leads to disturbance of the apicobasal polarity of the intestinal cells and to eventual death of the organism. We identified several alleles of yap-1 and egl-44 that suppress the effects of this mutation. yap-1 encodes a homolog of YAP/Yki, and egl-44 encodes a homolog of TEAD/Sd. WTS-1 bound directly to YAP-1 and inhibited its nuclear accumulation in intestinal cells. We also found that NFM-1, which is a homolog of NF2/Merlin, functioned in the same genetic pathway as WTS-1 to regulate YAP-1 to maintain cellular polarity. Transcriptome analysis identified several target candidates of the YAP-1-EGL-44 complex including TAT-2, which encodes a putative P-type ATPase. In summary, we have delineated the conserved Hippo pathway in C. elegans consisting of NFM-1-WTS-1-YAP-1-EGL-44 and proved that the proper regulation of YAP-1 by upstream NFM-1 and WTS-1 is essential for maintenance of apicobasal membrane identities of the growing intestine.

Lipid and Carbohydrate Metabolism in Caenorhabditis elegans

Lipid and carbohydrate metabolism are highly conserved processes that affect nearly all aspects of organismal biology. Caenorhabditis elegans eat bacteria, which consist of lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins that are broken down during digestion into fatty acids, simple sugars, and amino acid precursors. With these nutrients, C. elegans synthesizes a wide range of metabolites that are required for development and behavior. In this review, we outline lipid and carbohydrate structures as well as biosynthesis and breakdown pathways that have been characterized in C. elegans We bring attention to functional studies using mutant strains that reveal physiological roles for specific lipids and carbohydrates during development, aging, and adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

Starvation-Induced Stress Response Is Critically Impacted by Ceramide Levels in Caenorhabditis elegans

Our understanding of the cellular mechanisms by which animals regulate their response to starvation is limited, despite the strong relevance of the problem to major human health issues. The L1 diapause of Caenorhabditis elegans, where first-stage larvae arrest in response to a food-less environment, is an excellent system to study this mechanism. We found, through genetic manipulation and lipid analysis, that biosynthesis of ceramide, particularly those with longer fatty acid side chains, critically impacts animal survival during L1 diapause. Genetic interaction analysis suggests that ceramide may act in both insulin-IGF-1 signaling (IIS)-dependent and IIS-independent pathways to affect starvation survival. Genetic and expression analyses indicate that ceramide is required for maintaining the proper expression of previously characterized starvation-responsive genes, genes that are regulated by the IIS pathway and tumor suppressor Rb, and genes responsive to pathogen. These findings provide an important insight into the roles of sphingolipid metabolism, not only in starvation response, but also in aging and food-response-related human health problems.

Intestinal apical polarity mediates regulation of TORC1 by glucosylceramide in C. elegans

Zhu et al. discover that clathrin/AP-1-dependent intestinal apical membrane polarity and polarity-dependent localization of the V-ATPase mediate the impact of the lipid pathway on intestinal TORC1 activation. NPRL-3 represses mmBCFA-dependent intestinal TORC1 activity at least partly by regulating apical membrane polarity.

TORC1 (target of rapamycin complex 1) plays a central role in regulating growth, development, and behavior in response to nutrient cues. We previously showed that leucine-derived monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids (mmBCFAs) and derived glucosylceramide promote intestinal TORC1 activity for post-embryonic development and foraging behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we show that clathrin/adaptor protein 1 (AP-1)-dependent intestinal apical membrane polarity and polarity-dependent localization of the vacuolar-type H⁺-ATPase (V-ATPase) mediate the impact of the lipid pathway on intestinal TORC1 activation. Moreover, NPRL-3 represses mmBCFA-dependent intestinal TORC1 activity at least partly by regulating apical membrane polarity. Our results provide new insights into TORC1 regulation by lipids and membrane polarity in a specific tissue.

Inner workings and biological impact of phospholipid flippases

The plasma membrane, trans-Golgi network and endosomal system of eukaryotic cells are populated with flippases that hydrolyze ATP to help establish asymmetric phospholipid distributions across the bilayer. Upholding phospholipid asymmetry is vital to a host of cellular processes, including membrane homeostasis, vesicle biogenesis, cell signaling, morphogenesis and migration. Consequently, defining the identity of flippases and their biological impact has been the subject of intense investigations. Recent work has revealed a remarkable degree of kinship between flippases and cation pumps. In this Commentary, we review emerging insights into how flippases work, how their activity is controlled according to cellular demands, and how disrupting flippase activity causes system failure of membrane function, culminating in membrane trafficking defects, aberrant signaling and disease.

Exploring developmental and physiological functions of fatty acid and lipid variants through worm and fly genetics

Lipids are more than biomolecules for energy storage and membrane structure. With ample structural variation, lipids critically participate in nearly all aspects of cellular function. Lipid homeostasis and metabolism are closely related to major human diseases and health problems. However, lipid functional studies have been significantly underdeveloped, partly because of the difficulty in applying genetics and common molecular approaches to tackle the complexity associated with lipid biosynthesis, metabolism, and function. In the past decade, a number of laboratories began to analyze the roles of lipid metabolism in development and other physiological functions using animal models and combining genetics, genomics, and biochemical approaches. These pioneering efforts have not only provided valuable insights regarding lipid functions in vivo but have also established feasible methodology for future studies. Here, we review a subset of these studies using Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster.

Peroxisome protein transportation affects metabolism of branched-chain fatty acids that critically impact growth and development of C. elegans

The impact of specific lipid molecules, including fatty acid variants, on cellular and developmental regulation is an important research subject that remains under studied. Monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids (mmBCFAs) are commonly present in multiple organisms including mammals, however our understanding of mmBCFA functions is very limited. C. elegans has been the premier model system to study the functions of mmBCFAs and their derived lipids, as mmBCFAs have been shown to play essential roles in post-embryonic development in this organism. To understand more about the metabolism of mmBCFAs in C. elegans, we performed a genetic screen for suppressors of the L1 developmental arrest phenotype caused by mmBCFA depletion. Extensive characterization of one suppressor mutation identified prx-5, which encodes an ortholog of the human receptor for the type-1 peroxisomal targeting signal protein. Our study showed that inactivating prx-5 function compromised the peroxisome protein import, resulting in an increased level of branched-chain fatty acid C17ISO in animals lacking normal mmBCFA synthesis, thereby restoring wild-type growth and development. This work reveals a novel connection between peroxisomal functions and mmBCFA metabolism.

To grow or not to grow: nutritional control of development during Caenorhabditis elegans L1 arrest

It is widely appreciated that larvae of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans arrest development by forming dauer larvae in response to multiple unfavorable environmental conditions. C. elegans larvae can also reversibly arrest development earlier, during the first larval stage (L1), in response to starvation. "L1 arrest" (also known as "L1 diapause") occurs without morphological modification but is accompanied by increased stress resistance. Caloric restriction and periodic fasting can extend adult lifespan, and developmental models are critical to understanding how the animal is buffered from fluctuations in nutrient availability, impacting lifespan. L1 arrest provides an opportunity to study nutritional control of development. Given its relevance to aging, diabetes, obesity and cancer, interest in L1 arrest is increasing, and signaling pathways and gene regulatory mechanisms controlling arrest and recovery have been characterized. Insulin-like signaling is a critical regulator, and it is modified by and acts through microRNAs. DAF-18/PTEN, AMP-activated kinase and fatty acid biosynthesis are also involved. The nervous system, epidermis, and intestine contribute systemically to regulation of arrest, but cell-autonomous signaling likely contributes to regulation in the germline. A relatively small number of genes affecting starvation survival during L1 arrest are known, and many of them also affect adult lifespan, reflecting a common genetic basis ripe for exploration. mRNA expression is well characterized during arrest, recovery, and normal L1 development, providing a metazoan model for nutritional control of gene expression. In particular, post-recruitment regulation of RNA polymerase II is under nutritional control, potentially contributing to a rapid and coordinated response to feeding. The phenomenology of L1 arrest will be reviewed, as well as regulation of developmental arrest and starvation survival by various signaling pathways and gene regulatory mechanisms.

A novel sphingolipid-TORC1 pathway critically promotes postembryonic development in Caenorhabditis elegans

Regulation of animal development in response to nutritional cues is an intensely studied problem related to disease and aging. While extensive studies indicated roles of the Target of Rapamycin (TOR) in sensing certain nutrients for controlling growth and metabolism, the roles of fatty acids and lipids in TOR-involved nutrient/food responses are obscure. Caenorhabditis elegans halts postembryonic growth and development shortly after hatching in response to monomethyl branched-chain fatty acid (mmBCFA) deficiency. Here, we report that an mmBCFA-derived sphingolipid, d17iso-glucosylceramide, is a critical metabolite in regulating growth and development. Further analysis indicated that this lipid function is mediated by TORC1 and antagonized by the NPRL-2/3 complex in the intestine. Strikingly, the essential lipid function is bypassed by activating TORC1 or inhibiting NPRL-2/3. Our findings uncover a novel lipid-TORC1 signaling pathway that coordinates nutrient and metabolic status with growth and development, advancing our understanding of the physiological roles of mmBCFAs, ceramides, and TOR. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00429.001.

Emerging roles for specific fatty acids in developmental processes

Animals synthesize a vast range of fatty acids serving diverse cellular functions. The roles of specific fatty acids in early development are just beginning to be characterized. In the March 15, 2012, issue of Genes & Development, Kniazeva and colleagues (pp. 554-566) describe how the particular combination of a branched chain fatty acid and an acyl-CoA synthetase is required for critical cellular processes during early embryogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Mitochondrial oxidative stress alters a pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans strongly resembling that of bile acid biosynthesis and secretion in vertebrates

Mammalian bile acids (BAs) are oxidized metabolites of cholesterol whose amphiphilic properties serve in lipid and cholesterol uptake. BAs also act as hormone-like substances that regulate metabolism. The Caenorhabditis elegans clk-1 mutants sustain elevated mitochondrial oxidative stress and display a slow defecation phenotype that is sensitive to the level of dietary cholesterol. We found that: 1) The defecation phenotype of clk-1 mutants is suppressed by mutations in tat-2 identified in a previous unbiased screen for suppressors of clk-1. TAT-2 is homologous to ATP8B1, a flippase required for normal BA secretion in mammals. 2) The phenotype is suppressed by cholestyramine, a resin that binds BAs. 3) The phenotype is suppressed by the knock-down of C. elegans homologues of BA–biosynthetic enzymes. 4) The phenotype is enhanced by treatment with BAs. 5) Lipid extracts from C. elegans contain an activity that mimics the effect of BAs on clk-1, and the activity is more abundant in clk-1 extracts. 6) clk-1 and clk-1;tat-2 double mutants show altered cholesterol content. 7) The clk-1 phenotype is enhanced by high dietary cholesterol and this requires TAT-2. 8) Suppression of clk-1 by tat-2 is rescued by BAs, and this requires dietary cholesterol. 9) The clk-1 phenotype, including the level of activity in lipid extracts, is suppressed by antioxidants and enhanced by depletion of mitochondrial superoxide dismutases. These observations suggest that C. elegans synthesizes and secretes molecules with properties and functions resembling those of BAs. These molecules act in cholesterol uptake, and their level of synthesis is up-regulated by mitochondrial oxidative stress. Future investigations should reveal whether these molecules are in fact BAs, which would suggest the unexplored possibility that the elevated oxidative stress that characterizes the metabolic syndrome might participate in disease processes by affecting the regulation of metabolism by BAs.

Cholesterol metabolism, in particular the transport of cholesterol in the blood by lipoproteins, is an important determinant of human cardiovascular health. Bile acids are breakdown products of cholesterol that have detergent properties and are secreted into the gut by the liver. Bile acids carry out three distinct roles in cholesterol metabolism: 1) Their synthesis from cholesterol participates in cholesterol elimination. 2) They act as detergents in the uptake of dietary cholesterol from the gut. 3) They regulate many aspects of metabolism, including cholesterol metabolism, by molecular mechanisms similar to that of steroid hormones. We have found that cholesterol uptake and lipoprotein metabolism in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans are regulated by molecules whose activities, biosynthesis, and secretion strongly resemble that of bile acids and which might be bile acids. Most importantly we have found that oxidative stress upsets the regulation of the synthesis of these molecules. The metabolic syndrome is a set of cardiovascular risk factors that include obesity, high blood cholesterol, hypertension, and insulin resistance. Given the function of bile acids as metabolic regulators, our findings with C. elegans suggest the unexplored possibility that the elevated oxidative stress that characterizes the metabolic syndrome may participate in mammalian disease processes by affecting the regulation of bile acid synthesis.

Phospholipid flippases: building asymmetric membranes and transport vesicles

Phospholipid flippases in the type IV P-type ATPase family (P4-ATPases) are essential components of the Golgi, plasma membrane and endosomal system that play critical roles in membrane biogenesis. These pumps flip phospholipid across the bilayer to create an asymmetric membrane structure with substrate phospholipids, such as phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine, enriched within the cytosolic leaflet. The P4-ATPases also help form transport vesicles that bud from Golgi and endosomal membranes, thereby impacting the sorting and localization of many different proteins in the secretory and endocytic pathways. At the organismal level, P4-ATPase deficiencies are linked to liver disease, obesity, diabetes, hearing loss, neurological deficits, immune deficiency and reduced fertility. Here, we review the biochemical, cellular and physiological functions of P4-ATPases, with an emphasis on their roles in vesicle-mediated protein transport. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Lipids and Vesicular Transport.

The P4-ATPase TAT-5 inhibits the budding of extracellular vesicles in C. elegans embryos

BACKGROUND

Cells release extracellular vesicles (ECVs) that can influence differentiation, modulate the immune response, promote coagulation, and induce metastasis. Many ECVs form by budding outwards from the plasma membrane, but the molecules that regulate budding are unknown. In ECVs, the outer leaflet of the membrane bilayer contains aminophospholipids that are normally sequestered to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane, suggesting a role for lipid asymmetry in ECV budding.

RESULTS

We show that loss of the conserved P4-ATPase TAT-5 causes the large-scale shedding of ECVs and disrupts cell adhesion and morphogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. TAT-5 localizes to the plasma membrane and its loss results in phosphatidylethanolamine exposure on cell surfaces. We show that RAB-11 and endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) proteins, which regulate the topologically analogous process of viral budding, are enriched at the plasma membrane in tat-5 embryos, and are required for ECV production.

CONCLUSIONS

TAT-5 is the first protein identified to regulate ECV budding. TAT-5 provides a potential molecular link between loss of phosphatidylethanolamine asymmetry and the dynamic budding of vesicles from the plasma membrane, supporting the hypothesis that lipid asymmetry regulates budding. Our results also suggest that viral budding and ECV budding may share common molecular mechanisms.

Apicobasal domain identities of expanding tubular membranes depend on glycosphingolipid biosynthesis

Metazoan internal organs are assembled from polarized tubular epithelia that must set aside an apical membrane domain as a lumenal surface. In a global Caenorhabditis elegans tubulogenesis screen, interference with several distinct fatty-acid-biosynthetic enzymes transformed a contiguous central intestinal lumen into multiple ectopic lumens. We show that multiple-lumen formation is caused by apicobasal polarity conversion, and demonstrate that in situ modulation of lipid biosynthesis is sufficient to reversibly switch apical domain identities on growing membranes of single post-mitotic cells, shifting lumen positions. Follow-on targeted lipid-biosynthesis pathway screens and functional genetic assays were designed to identify a putative single causative lipid species. They demonstrate that fatty-acid biosynthesis affects polarity through sphingolipid synthesis, and reveal ceramide glucosyltransferases (CGTs) as end-point biosynthetic enzymes in this pathway. Our findings identify glycosphingolipids, CGT products and obligate membrane lipids, as critical determinants of in vivo polarity and indicate that they sort new components to the expanding apical membrane.

Caenorhabditis elegans numb inhibits endocytic recycling by binding TAT-1 aminophospholipid translocase

Numb regulates endocytosis in many metazoans, but the mechanism by which it functions is not completely understood. Here we report that the Caenorhabditis elegans Numb ortholog, NUM-1A, a regulator of endocytic recycling, binds the C isoform of transbilayer amphipath transporter-1 (TAT-1), a P4 family adenosine triphosphatase and putative aminophospholipid translocase that is required for proper endocytic trafficking. We demonstrate that TAT-1 is differentially spliced during development and that TAT-1C-specific splicing occurs in the intestine where NUM-1A is known to function. NUM-1A and TAT-1C colocalize in vivo. We have mapped the binding site to an NXXF motif in TAT-1C. This motif is not required for TAT-1C function but is required for NUM-1A's ability to inhibit recycling. We demonstrate that num-1A and tat-1 defects are both suppressed by the loss of the activity of PSSY-1, a phosphatidylserine (PS) synthase. PS is mislocalized in intestinal cells with defects in tat-1 or num-1A function. We propose that NUM-1A inhibits recycling by inhibiting TAT-1C's ability to translocate PS across the membranes of recycling endosomes.

Functions of phospholipid flippases

Asymmetrical distribution of phospholipids is generally observed in the eukaryotic plasma membrane. Maintenance and changes of this phospholipid asymmetry are regulated by ATP-driven phospholipid translocases. Accumulating evidence indicates that type 4 P-type ATPases (P4-ATPases, also called flippases) translocate phospholipids from the exoplasmic leaflet to the cytoplasmic leaflet of the plasma membrane and internal membranes. Among P-type ATPases, P4-ATPases are unique in that they are associated with a conserved membrane protein of the Cdc50 family as a non-catalytic subunit. Recent studies indicate that flippases are involved in various cellular functions, including transport vesicle formation and cell polarity. In this review, we will focus on the functional aspect of phospholipid flippases.

Biochemical and cellular functions of P4 ATPases

P4 ATPases (subfamily IV P-type ATPases) form a specialized subfamily of P-type ATPases and have been implicated in phospholipid translocation from the exoplasmic to the cytoplasmic leaflet of biological membranes. Pivotal roles of P4 ATPases have been demonstrated in eukaryotes, ranging from yeast, fungi and plants to mice and humans. P4 ATPases might exert their cellular functions by combining enzymatic phospholipid translocation activity with an enzyme-independent action. The latter could be involved in the timely recruitment of proteins involved in cellular signalling, vesicle coat assembly and cytoskeleton regulation. In the present review, we outline the current knowledge of the biochemical and cellular functions of P4 ATPases in the eukaryotic membrane.

Regulation of C. elegans fat uptake and storage by acyl-CoA synthase-3 is dependent on NR5A family nuclear hormone receptor nhr-25

Acyl-CoA synthases are important for lipid synthesis and breakdown, generation of signaling molecules, and lipid modification of proteins, highlighting the challenge of understanding metabolic pathways within intact organisms. From a C. elegans mutagenesis screen, we found that loss of ACS-3, a long-chain acyl-CoA synthase, causes enhanced intestinal lipid uptake, de novo fat synthesis, and accumulation of enlarged, neutral lipid-rich intestinal depots. Here, we show that ACS-3 functions in seam cells, epidermal cells anatomically distinct from sites of fat uptake and storage, and that acs-3 mutant phenotypes require the nuclear hormone receptor NHR-25, a key regulator of C. elegans molting. Our findings suggest that ACS-3-derived long-chain fatty acyl-CoAs, perhaps incorporated into complex ligands such as phosphoinositides, modulate NHR-25 function, which in turn regulates an endocrine program of lipid uptake and synthesis. These results reveal a link between acyl-CoA synthase function and an NR5A family nuclear receptor in C. elegans.

Lipid transport and signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans

The strengths of the Caenorhabditis elegans model have been recently applied to the study of the pathways of lipid storage, transport, and signaling. As the lipid storage field has recently been reviewed, in this minireview we (1) discuss some recent studies revealing important physiological roles for lipases in mobilizing lipid reserves, (2) describe various pathways of lipid transport, with a particular focus on the roles of lipoproteins, (3) debate the utility of using C. elegans as a model for human dyslipidemias that impinge on atherosclerosis, and (4) describe several systems where lipids affect signaling, highlighting the particular properties of lipids as information-carrying molecules. We conclude that the study of lipid biology in C. elegans exemplifies the advantages afforded by a whole-animal model system where interactions between tissues and organs, and functions such as nutrient absorption, distribution, and storage, as well as reproduction can all be studied simultaneously.