[
International Worm Meeting,
2007]
HMG-CoA synthase (HMGS) has been known to be one of the key enzymes involved in cholesterol biosynthesis (in the cytosol) and ketone body formation (in mitochondria) in animals, depending on the physiological conditions. In C. elegans, neither the presence of this enzyme nor its regulation under various physiological states has been well established. In the course of our study of daumone-related biology, we were interested in the cloning and characterization of HMGS gene. Since one of the characteristic physiological features of dauer larvae of C. elegans is believed to be efficient fat mobilization and ketone body formation to meet the energy demands for survival, we wanted to investigate how this enzyme might be involved in energy metabolism in the daumone-induced dauer larvae. To understand the functional role of this enzyme in the dauer state, we first isolated the F25B4.6 clone, an ortholog of the human HMGS gene, by searching the C. elegans genome database. Our data from DNA sequencing, RNAi and RT-PCR experiments suggest that this clone indeed encodes an authentic C. elegans HMGS and its mRNA level appears to be regulated developmentally, which peaks in the early L2 stage. With the availability of the over-expressed recombinant protein (Mr 51.4 kDa), functional characterization and molecular regulation of HMGS is now underway. (Supported by a grant from the BioGreen 21 Project to YKP.).
[
East Asia C. elegans Meeting,
2006]
HMG-CoA synthase (HMGS) has been known as one of the key enzymes involved in cholesterol biosynthesis (in cytosol) and ketone body formation (in mitochondrion) in animals, depending on the physiological condition. In C. elegans, it has not previously been well established as to the presence of this enzyme or its regulation under various physiological states of this nematode. In the course of our study for the daumone-related biology, we were interested in cloning and characterization of HMGS gene. Since one of the characteristic physiological features of dauer larvae of C. elegans is believed to be an yet to be characterized efficient fat mobilization and ketone body formation to meet the energy demands for survival, we wanted to investigate how this enzyme might be involved in energy metabolism in the daumone-induced dauer larvae. To understand a functional role of this enzyme in dauer state, we first isolated F25B4.6 clone, an ortholog of human HMGS gene, by searching through the C. elegans genome database. Our data from DNA sequencing, RNAi and RT-PCR experiments suggest that this clone indeed encodes an authentic C. elegans HMGS and its mRNA level appears to be regulated developmentally, which peaks the early L2 stage. With the availability of the over-expressed recombinant protein (Mr.. 51.4 kDa), functional characterization and molecular regulation of HMGS is now underway ([Supported by a grant from BioGreen 21 Project to YKP]).