Abstract

Although aging-regulating pathways were discovered a few decades ago, it is not entirely clear how their activities are orchestrated, to govern lifespan and proteostasis at the organismal level. Here we utilized the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to examine whether the alteration of aging, by reducing the activity of the Insulin/IGF signaling (IIS) cascade, affects protein SUMOylation. We found that IIS activity promotes the SUMOylation of the germline protein, CAR-1, thereby shortening lifespan and impairing proteostasis. In contrast, the expression of mutated CAR-1, that cannot be SUMOylated at residue 185, extends lifespan and enhances proteostasis. A mechanistic analysis indicated that CAR-1 mediates its aging-altering functions, at least partially, through the notch-like receptor glp-1. Our findings unveil a novel regulatory axis in which SUMOylation is utilized to integrate the aging-controlling functions of the IIS and of the germline and provide new insights into the roles of SUMOylation in the regulation of organismal aging.

Data availability

Mass Spectrometry data has been deposited at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride (Project accession: PXD010011).

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Lorna Moll

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Noa Roitenberg

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Michal Bejerano-Sagie

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Hana Boocholez

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Filipa Carvalhal Marques

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Yuli Volovik

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Tayir Elami

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Atif Ahmed Siddiqui

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Danielle Grushko

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Adi Biram

    Department of Biological Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6169-9861
  11. Bar Lampert

    Department of Genetics, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Hana Achache

    Department of Genetics, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  13. Tommer Ravid

    Department of Biological Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  14. Yonatan B Tzur

    Department of Genetics, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  15. Ehud Cohen

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
    For correspondence
    ehudc@ekmd.huji.ac.il
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5552-7086

Funding

Israel Science Foundation (EC 981/16)

  • Hana Boocholez
  • Danielle Grushko
  • Ehud Cohen

Israel Science Foundation (YBT 2090/15)

  • Bar Lampert
  • Yonatan B Tzur

Israel Science Foundation (YBT 1283/15)

  • Bar Lampert
  • Yonatan B Tzur

European Research Council (EC 281010)

  • Lorna Moll
  • Noa Roitenberg
  • Michal Bejerano-Sagie
  • Filipa Carvalhal Marques
  • Yuli Volovik
  • Tayir Elami
  • Danielle Grushko
  • Ehud Cohen

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2018, Moll et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Lorna Moll
  2. Noa Roitenberg
  3. Michal Bejerano-Sagie
  4. Hana Boocholez
  5. Filipa Carvalhal Marques
  6. Yuli Volovik
  7. Tayir Elami
  8. Atif Ahmed Siddiqui
  9. Danielle Grushko
  10. Adi Biram
  11. Bar Lampert
  12. Hana Achache
  13. Tommer Ravid
  14. Yonatan B Tzur
  15. Ehud Cohen
(2018)
The Insulin/IGF signaling cascade modulates SUMOylation to regulate aging and proteostasis in C. elegans
eLife 7:e38635.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38635

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38635

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
    Liyi Wang, Shiqi Liu ... Tizhong Shan
    Research Article

    Conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) can serve as a nutritional intervention to regulate quality, function, and fat infiltration in skeletal muscles, but the specific cytological mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we applied single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) to characterize the cytological mechanism of CLAs regulates fat infiltration in skeletal muscles based on pig models. We investigated the regulatory effects of CLAs on cell populations and molecular characteristics in pig muscles and found CLAs could promote the transformation of fast glycolytic myofibers into slow oxidative myofibers. We also observed three subpopulations including SCD+/DGAT2+, FABP5+/SIAH1+, and PDE4D+/PDE7B+ subclusters in adipocytes and CLAs could increase the percentage of SCD+/DGAT2+ adipocytes. RNA velocity analysis showed FABP5+/SIAH1+ and PDE4D+/PDE7B+ adipocytes could differentiate into SCD+/DGAT2+ adipocytes. We further verified the differentiated trajectory of mature adipocytes and identified PDE4D+/PDE7B+ adipocytes could differentiate into SCD+/DGAT2+ and FABP5+/SIAH1+ adipocytes by using high intramuscular fat (IMF) content Laiwu pig models. The cell-cell communication analysis identified the interaction network between adipocytes and other subclusters such as fibro/adipogenic progenitors (FAPs). Pseudotemporal trajectory analysis and RNA velocity analysis also showed FAPs could differentiate into PDE4D+/PDE7B+ preadipocytes and we discovered the differentiated trajectory of preadipocytes into mature adipocytes. Besides, we found CLAs could promote FAPs differentiate into SCD+/DGAT2+ adipocytes via inhibiting c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathway in vitro. This study provides a foundation for regulating fat infiltration in skeletal muscles by using nutritional strategies and provides potential opportunities to serve pig as an animal model to study human fat infiltrated diseases.

    1. Cancer Biology
    2. Cell Biology
    Zuzana Outla, Gizem Oyman-Eyrilmez ... Martin Gregor
    Research Article

    The most common primary malignancy of the liver, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is a heterogeneous tumor entity with high metastatic potential and complex pathophysiology. Increasing evidence suggests that tissue mechanics plays a critical role in tumor onset and progression. Here, we show that plectin, a major cytoskeletal crosslinker protein, plays a crucial role in mechanical homeostasis and mechanosensitive oncogenic signaling that drives hepatocarcinogenesis. Our expression analyses revealed elevated plectin levels in liver tumors, which correlated with poor prognosis for HCC patients. Using autochthonous and orthotopic mouse models we demonstrated that genetic and pharmacological inactivation of plectin potently suppressed the initiation and growth of HCC. Moreover, plectin targeting potently inhibited the invasion potential of human HCC cells and reduced their metastatic outgrowth in the lung. Proteomic and phosphoproteomic profiling linked plectin-dependent disruption of cytoskeletal networks to attenuation of oncogenic FAK, MAPK/Erk, and PI3K/Akt signatures. Importantly, by combining cell line-based and murine HCC models, we show that plectin inhibitor plecstatin-1 (PST) is well-tolerated and potently inhibits HCC progression. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that plectin-controlled cytoarchitecture is a key determinant of HCC development and suggests that pharmacologically induced disruption of mechanical homeostasis may represent a new therapeutic strategy for HCC treatment.