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Microgravity elicits reproducible alterations in cytoskeletal and metabolic gene and protein expression in space-flown Caenorhabditis elegans

Szewczyk, Nathaniel; Higashibata, Akira; Hashizume, Toko; Nemoto, Kanako; Higashitani, Nahoko; Etheridge, Timothy; Mori, Chihiro; Harada, Shunsuke; Sugimoto, Tomoko; Baba, Shoji A; Mogami, Yoshihiro; Fukui, Keiji; Higashitani, Atsushi

Authors

Nathaniel Szewczyk

Akira Higashibata

Toko Hashizume

Kanako Nemoto

Nahoko Higashitani

Timothy Etheridge

Chihiro Mori

Shunsuke Harada

Tomoko Sugimoto

Shoji A Baba

Yoshihiro Mogami

Keiji Fukui

Atsushi Higashitani



Abstract

Although muscle atrophy is a serious problem during spaceflight, little is known about the sequence of molecular events leading to atrophy in response to microgravity. We carried out a spaceflight experiment using Caenorhabditis elegans onboard the Japanese Experiment Module of the International Space Station. Worms were synchronously cultured in liquid media with bacterial food for 4 days under microgravity or on a 1-G centrifuge. Worms were visually observed for health and movement and then frozen. Upon return, we analyzed global gene and protein expression using DNA microarrays and mass spectrometry. Body length and fat accumulation were also analyzed. We found that in worms grown from the L1 larval stage to adulthood under microgravity, both gene and protein expression levels for muscular thick filaments, cytoskeletal elements, and mitochondrial metabolic enzymes decreased relative to parallel cultures on the 1-G centrifuge (95% confidence interval (P?0.05)). In addition, altered movement and decreased body length and fat accumulation were observed in the microgravity-cultured worms relative to the 1-G cultured worms. These results suggest protein expression changes that may account for the progressive muscular atrophy observed in astronauts.

Citation

Szewczyk, N., Higashibata, A., Hashizume, T., Nemoto, K., Higashitani, N., Etheridge, T., …Higashitani, A. (2016). Microgravity elicits reproducible alterations in cytoskeletal and metabolic gene and protein expression in space-flown Caenorhabditis elegans. npj Microgravity, 2, Article 15022. https://doi.org/10.1038/npjmgrav.2015.22

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 17, 2015
Publication Date Jan 21, 2016
Deposit Date Nov 15, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Print ISSN 2373-8065
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2
Article Number 15022
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/npjmgrav.2015.22
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1123879
Publisher URL https://www.nature.com/articles/npjmgrav201522
PMID 28725720

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