Large vesicle extrusions from <i>C. elegans</i> neurons are consumed and stimulated by glial-like phagocytosis activity of the neighboring cell.

ABSTRACT: Caenorhabditis elegans neurons under stress can produce giant vesicles, several microns in diameter, called exophers. Current models suggest that exophers are neuroprotective, providing a mechanism for stressed neurons to eject toxic protein aggregates and organelles. However, little is known of the fate of the exopher once it leaves the neuron. We found that exophers produced by mechanosensory neurons in C. elegans are engulfed by surrounding hypodermal skin cells and are then broken up into numerous smaller vesicles that acquire hypodermal phagosome maturation markers, with vesicular contents gradually degraded by hypodermal lysosomes. Consistent with the hypodermis acting as an exopher phagocyte, we found that exopher removal requires hypodermal actin and Arp2/3, and the h

SUBMITTER: Wang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10023159 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature