RNAi targeting Caenorhabditis elegans α-arrestins has little effect on lifespan

Sangsoon Park,Yujin Lee,Yoonji Jung,Heehwa G Son,Seung-Jae V Lee,Hae-Eun H Park,Wooseon Hwang,Dae-Eun Jeong,Murat Artan,Seon Woo A An,Dongyeop Lee

doi:10.12688/f1000research.12337.4

Abstract

Background: α-arrestins are a family of proteins that are implicated in multiple biological processes, including metabolism and receptor desensitization. Methods: Here, we sought to examine the roles of α-arrestins in the longevity of Caenorhabditis elegans through an RNA interference screen. Results: We found that feeding worms with bacteria expressing double-stranded RNA against each of 24 out of total 29 C. elegans α-arrestins had little effect on lifespan. Thus, individual C. elegans α-arrestins may have minor effects on longevity. Conclusions: This study will provide useful information for future research on the functional role of α-arrestins in aging and longevity.

Highlights

Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article
Feeding bacteria expressing double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) against each of several C. elegans α-arrestins marginally influenced lifespan We measured the lifespan of wild-type and long-lived daf-2 mutant animals fed with bacteria expressing dsRNA targeting each of 24 of 29 genes encoding putative α-arrestin proteins (Figure 1A)
We showed that feeding bacteria expressing dsRNA targeting individual C. elegans α-arrestins had little effect on lifespan in wild-type or daf-2 mutants

Summary

Introduction

Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. We performed a lifespan assay-based RNAi screen targeting 24 out of 29 C. elegans α-arrestins. We found that α-arrestin double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-expressing E. coli feeding had little effect on the lifespan of wild-type or daf-2 mutants. C. elegans α-arrestins may play minor or modulatory roles in lifespan regulation. It will be important to test the roles of α-arrestins in combinatorial manners and/or by using strong loss-of-function mutations in future research. Introduction α-arrestins are a family of proteins that contain arrestin domains whose sequences and structures have similarities with those of classical visual and β-arrestins. The human genome encodes 6 α-arrestins and 4 visual or β-arrestins. The simple roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans genome contains 29 α-arrestin and 1 β-arrestin genes. Information regarding the functions of C. elegans α-arrestins is limited

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