FATTY ACID BIOSYNTHESIS ENZYMES HAVE A CRUCIAL ROLE IN Caenorhabditis elegansDEVELOPMENT

BARO GRAF CAROLINA; DE MENDOZA, D; ALTABE, SILVIA

Rosario

Congreso; L-Reunion de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2014

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Fatty acids are structural components of cell membranes and have central roles in selective permeability, membrane fluidity and signaling. Caenorhabditis elegans obtains fatty acids from its bacterial diet and also synthesizes them de novo using two multifunctional enzymes: acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC) and fatty acid synthase (FASI) yielding palmitic acid, which can be modified by fatty acid elongases and desaturases to form polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). In order to understand the role of fatty acid synthesis in nematode development, we performed interference experiments against ACC (pod-2) or FASI in different developmental stages (eggs, L1, L2 and L3). We observed that the development and the de novo synthesis of fatty acids are affected and vary according to the stage, being more important in L1. In this stage worms are arrested in their growth and PUFAs are not synthesized in spite of incorporating the necessary precursors from the diet. Moreover, experiments supplementing interfered worms with free fatty acids, E. coli NA22 or B. subtilis JH642 could not rescue the wild type phenotype or their fatty acid profiles. These results suggest the existence of an interaction between ACC and FASI with the enzymes acting downstream in the pathway.