Project description:When faced with adverse environmental conditions, the marsupial Dromiciops gliroides uses either daily or seasonal torpor to support survival and is the only known hibernating mammal in South America. As the sole living representative of the ancient Order Microbiotheria, this species can provide crucial information about the evolutionary origins and biochemical mechanisms of hibernation. Hibernation is a complex energy-saving strategy that involves changes in gene expression that are elicited in part by microRNAs. To better elucidate the role of microRNAs in orchestrating hypometabolism, a modified stem-loop technique and quantitative PCR were used to characterize the relative expression levels of 85 microRNAs in liver and skeletal muscle of control and torpid D. gliroides. Thirty-nine microRNAs were differentially regulated during torpor; of these, 35 were downregulated in liver and 11 were differentially expressed in skeletal muscle. Bioinformatic analysis predicted that the downregulated liver microRNAs were associated with activation of MAPK, PI3K-Akt and mTOR pathways, suggesting their importance in facilitating marsupial torpor. In skeletal muscle, hibernation-responsive microRNAs were predicted to regulate focal adhesion, ErbB, and mTOR pathways, indicating a promotion of muscle maintenance mechanisms. These tissue-specific responses suggest that microRNAs regulate key molecular pathways that facilitate hibernation, thermoregulation, and prevention of muscle disuse atrophy.
Project description:Polyamines are aliphatic polycations that have emerged as important determinants of cell growth and viability in rapidly proliferating cells, including in the pathogenic protozoan parasite Leishmania donovani. In L. donovani, the polyamine spermidine is synthesized by the successive conversion of ornithine into putrescine (catalyzed by ornithine decarboxylase or ODC) and putrescine into spermidine (catalyzed by spermidine synthase or SPDSYN). Deletion of either ODC (del-odc) or SPDSYN (del-spdsyn) from the L. donovani genome renders these parasites auxotrophic for polyamines and these mutants are impaired in their ability to survive both in culture and within the mammalian host without the addition of exogenous polyamine supplementation. Significantly, del-odc parasites immediately cease proliferation after putrescine is removed from the culture media and perish within two weeks, while spermidine starved del-spdsyn mutants, which retain intracellular putrescine pools, show a slow-growth phenotype, and persist for several weeks in culture. To elucidate the key differences within the proteome of putrescine-starved del-odc cells and spermidine-starved del-spdsyn parasites, a shotgun quantitative proteomics approach was undertaken using TMT labeling and LC-MS/MS analysis. Briefly, three biological replicates each for mid-log phase del-odc and del-spdsyn promastigotes grown in the presence of exogenous putrescine (for del-odc) or spermidine (for del-spdsyn) supplementation were washed to remove the exogenous polyamine supplementation and incubated in polyamine-free media. At 24 and 48 h, cells from each biological replicate were isolated and prepared for tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling and downstream LC-MS/MS analyses. Peptides were identified using a database generated from the reference genome of L. donovani BPK282A1 strain. Changes in relative protein abundance for the polyamine-starved del-odc and del-spdsyn cell lines at 24 and 48 h were calculated by comparing aggregate total reporter ion intensities for each protein to that of the corresponding polyamine-supplemented 0-h timepoint.