Abstract
BackgroundAlmost all animals adapt to dietary restriction through alternative life history traits that affect their growth, reproduction, and survival. Economized management of fat stores is a prevalent type of such adaptations. Because one-carbon metabolism is a critical gauge of food availability, in this study, we used Caenorhabditis elegans to test whether the methyl group donor choline regulates adaptive responses to dietary restriction. We used a modest dietary restriction regimen that prolonged the fecund period without reducing the lifetime production of progeny, which is the best measure of fitness.ResultsWe found that dietary supplementation with choline abrogate the dietary restriction-induced prolongation of the reproductive period as well as the accumulation and delayed depletion of large lipid droplets and whole-fat stores and increased the survival rate in the cold. By contrast, the life span-prolonging effect of dietary restriction is not affected by choline. Moreover, we found that dietary restriction led to the enlargement of lipid droplets within embryos and enhancement of the cold tolerance of the progeny of dietarily restricted mothers. Both of these transgenerational responses to maternal dietary restriction were abrogated by exposing the parental generation to choline.ConclusionsIn conclusion, supplementation with the methyl group donor choline abrogates distinct responses to dietary restriction related to reproduction, utilization of fat stored in large lipid droplets, cold tolerance, and thrifty phenotypes in C. elegans.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12263-016-0522-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Almost all animals adapt to dietary restriction through alternative life history traits that affect their growth, reproduction, and survival
Because one-carbon metabolism regulates the homeostasis of phosphatidylcholine synthesis, lipogenesis, lipid droplet size, and lipolytic efficacy (Ehmke et al 2014; Li et al 2011), in this study, we used C. elegans to determine whether the methyl group donor choline plays a regulatory role in the enlargement of LDs and other adaptive phenotypes that are induced by dietarily restricted (DR)
Because one-carbon metabolism plays a critical role in the regulation of both LD size and the extent of fat storage (Ehmke et al 2014; Li et al 2011), we supplemented the diet of the DR worms with the methyl group donor choline
Summary
Almost all animals adapt to dietary restriction through alternative life history traits that affect their growth, reproduction, and survival. Functional genomic screens of the model organisms Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster have been performed to identify genes that regulate LD formation and utilization (Ashrafi et al 2003; Guo et al 2008) These screens established that Arf1-COPI-mediated vesicular transport and the phosphatidylcholine synthesis pathway play important roles in the morphology and Klapper et al Genes & Nutrition (2016) 11:4 functionality of LDs. Many LD regulatory genes are conserved from worms to humans. Because one-carbon metabolism regulates the homeostasis of phosphatidylcholine synthesis, lipogenesis, lipid droplet size, and lipolytic efficacy (Ehmke et al 2014; Li et al 2011), in this study, we used C. elegans to determine whether the methyl group donor choline plays a regulatory role in the enlargement of LDs and other adaptive phenotypes that are induced by DR
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