NAD+ Replenishment Improves Lifespan and Healthspan in Ataxia Telangiectasia Models via Mitophagy and DNA Repair.

Ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by progressive neurodegeneration and cerebellar ataxia. A-T is causally linked to defects in ATM, a master regulator of the response to and repair of DNA double-strand breaks. The molecular basis of cerebellar atrophy and neurodegeneration in A-T patients is unclear. Here we report and examine the significance of increased PARylation, low NAD+, and mitochondrial dysfunction in ATM-deficient neurons, mice, and worms. Treatments that replenish intracellular NAD+ reduce the severity of A-T neuropathology, normalize neuromuscular function, delay memory loss, and extend lifespan in both animal models. Mechanistically, treatments that increase intracellular NAD+ also stimulate neuronal DNA repair and improve mitochondrial quality via mitophagy. This work links two major theories on aging, DNA damage accumulation, and mitochondrial dysfunction through nuclear DNA damage-induced nuclear-mitochondrial signaling, and demonstrates that they are important pathophysiological determinants in premature aging of A-T, pointing to therapeutic interventions.

PHA-4 organogenesis

The pha-4 locus encodes a forkhead box A (FoxA/HNF3) transcription factor homolog that specifies organ identity for Caenorhabditis elegans pharyngeal cells. We used microarrays to identify pharyngeal genes and analyzed those genes to determine which were direct PHA-4 targets. Our data suggest that PHA-4 directly activates most or all pharyngeal genes. Furthermore, the relative affinity of PHA-4 for different TRTTKRY (R = A/G, K = T/G, Y = T/C) elements modulates the onset of gene expression, providing a mechanism to activate pharyngeal genes at different developmental stages. We suggest that direct transcriptional regulation of entire gene networks may be a common feature of organ identity genes. A genotyping experiment design type classifies an individual or group of individuals on the basis of alleles, haplotypes, SNP's. Keywords: genotyping_design

Genetic Analysis of Pathways Regulated by the von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor in Caenorhabditis elegans

The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor functions as a ubiquitin ligase that mediates proteolytic inactivation of hydroxylated a subunits of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). Although studies of VHL defective renal carcinoma cells suggest the existence of other VHL tumor suppressor pathways, dysregulation of the HIF transcriptional cascade has extensive effects that make it difficult to distinguish whether, and to what extent, observed abnormalities in these cells represent effects on pathways that are distinct from HIF. Here, we report on a genetic analysis of HIF dependent and independent effects of VHL inactivation by studying gene expression patterns in C. elegans. We show tight conservation of the HIF-1/VHL-1/EGL-9 hydroxylase pathway. However, persisting differential gene expression in hif-1 versus hif-1; vhl-1 double mutant worms clearly distinguished HIF-1 independent effects of VHL-1 inactivation. Genomic clustering, predicted functional similarities, and a common pattern of dysregulation in both vhl-1 worms and a set of mutants (dpy-18, let-268, gon-1, mig-17 and unc-6), with different defects in extracellular matrix formation, suggest that dysregulation of these genes reflects a discrete HIF-1 independent function of VHL-1 that is connected with extracellular matrix function. Set of arrays organized by shared biological context, such as organism, tumors types, processes, etc. Bishop T, Lau KW, Epstein AC, Kim SK, Jiang M, O'rourke D, Pugh CW, Gleadle JM, Taylor MS, Hodgkin J, Ratcliffe PJ, Genetic Analysis of Pathways Regulated by the von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor in Caenorhabditis elegans., Bishop T, et al. (2004) PLoS Biol 2(10):e289, 2004-10-01, http:

PQM-1 controls hypoxic survival via regulation of lipid metabolism.

Worms were exposed to 5 mM CoCl2 at the early day 1 of adulthood stage for 6 hr and 20 hr. Untreated worms were used as controls. Worms were collected, RNA isolated and hybridized on 4x44K C. elegans arrays (Agilent) at 60C overnight, as previously described 1). Three biological replicates were used. Significant differentially-expressed gene sets were identified using one or two-class SAM 2). 1) Shaw, W. M., Luo, S., Landis, J., Ashraf, J. & Murphy, C. T. The C. elegans TGF-beta Dauer pathway regulates longevity via insulin signaling. Curr Biol 17, 1635-1645, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.08.058 (2007). 2) Tusher, V. G., Tibshirani, R. & Chu, G. Significance analysis of microarrays applied to the ionizing radiation response. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98, 5116-5121, doi:10.1073/pnas.091062498 (2001).