title: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase mediates anoxia response and survival in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: Oxygen deprivation has a role in the pathology of many human diseases. Thus it is of interest in understanding the genetic and cellular responses to hypoxia or anoxia in oxygen-deprivation-tolerant organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans. In C. elegans the DAF-2/DAF-16 pathway, an IGF-1/insulin-like signaling pathway, is involved with dauer formation, longevity, and stress resistance. In this report we compared the response of wild-type and daf-2(e1370) animals to anoxia. Unlike wild-type animals, the daf-2(e1370) animals have an enhanced anoxia-survival phenotype in that they survive long-term anoxia and high-temperature anoxia, do not accumulate significant tissue damage in either of these conditions, and are motile after 24 hr of anoxia. RNA interference was used to screen DAF-16-regulated genes that suppress the daf-2(e1370)-enhanced anoxia-survival phenotype. We identified gpd-2 and gpd-3, two nearly identical genes in an operon that encode the glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. We found that not only is the daf-2(e1370)-enhanced anoxia phenotype dependent upon gpd-2 and gpd-3, but also the motility of animals exposed to brief periods of anoxia is prematurely arrested in gpd-2/3(RNAi) and daf-2(e1370);gpd-2/3(RNAi) animals. These data suggest that gpd-2 and gpd-3 may serve a protective role in tissue exposed to oxygen deprivation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Mendenhall
authors.forename: Bobby
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: LaRue
authors.forename: Pamela A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Padilla
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D005987:Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000860:Hypoxia; D009876:Operon; D034622:RNA Interference; D011972:Receptor, Insulin / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013534:Survival; D015996:Survival Rate; D013696:Temperature; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors; C108831:daf-16 protein, C elegans; D005987:Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenases; C107483:DAF-2 protein, C elegans; D011972:Receptor, Insulin