Fat Metabolism Regulates Satiety Behavior in C. elegans.
Animals change feeding behavior depending on their metabolic status; starved animals are eager to eat and satiated animals stop eating. C. elegans exhibits satiety quiescence under certain conditions that mimics many aspects of post-prandial sleep in mammals. Here we show that this feeding behavior depends on fat metabolism mediated by the SREBP-SCD pathway, an acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and certain nuclear hormone receptors (NRs). Mutations of the genes in the SREBP-SCD pathway reduce satiety quiescence. An RNA interference (RNAi) screen of the genes that regulate glucose and fatty acid metabolism identified an ACC necessary for satiety quiescence in C. elegans. ACC catalyzes the first step in de novo fatty acid biosynthesis known to be downstream of the SREBP pathway in mammals. We identified 28 NRs by microarray whose expression changes during refeeding after being starved. When individually knocked down by RNAi, 11 NRs among 28 affect both fat storage and satiety behavior. Our results show that the major fat metabolism pathway regulates feeding behavior and NRs could be the mediators to link the feeding behavior to the metabolic changes.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Moonjung
M
Hyun
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Kristen
K
Davis
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Inhwan
I
Lee
Department of Biological Sciences, Inha University, Incheon, 402-751, South Korea.
Jeongho
J
Kim
Department of Pathology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA.
Catherine
C
Dumur
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Young-Jai
YJ
You
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D015870:Gene Expression; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D009154:Mutation; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D005227:Fatty Acids; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear