Dissecting phospholipid metabolism pathways after glucose stress in C. elegans

Vieira, Andre

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Dissecting phospholipid metabolism pathways after glucose stress in C. elegans

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Phospholipid membranes are dynamic structures that show aberrant composition in patients with diseases such as cancer and diabetes. The role the membrane composition plays in the onset of disease states is not yet understood. However, it is clear that membranes require a specific composition, and membrane composition also needs to adapt to external stimuli. In this work, we focused on understanding the rewiring of metabolic pathways that allows the adaptation of membrane composition when responding to glucose stress. To do so, we used RNAi to knockdown the activity of genes participating in lipid synthesis including ELO-3, ELO-5 and CGT-3 to probe the role of specific lipid populations using lifespan analysis, GC/MS, and HPLC/MS-MS. In doing so, we found that mmBCFAs are required to survive glucose stress through a glucosylceramide called d17iso GluCer. Taken together, our data improves the understanding about how saturated and unsaturated fatty acids respond to glucose stress and also revealed a new pathway dependent on the presence of mmBCFAS.

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