The abundance and diversity of intermediate filaments (IFs) in the C. elegans intestine indicate important contributions to intestinal function and organismal wellbeing. fluorescent if reporters localize below the actin-rich brush border and are highly enriched in the lumen-enveloping endotube, which is attached to the C. elegans apical junction. Mapping intestinal viscoelasticity by contact-free Brillouin microscopy reveals that the IF-rich endotube is positioned at the interface between the stiff brush border and soft cytoplasm suggesting a mechanical buffering function to deal with the frequent luminal distortions occurring during food intake and movement. In accordance, depletion of IFB-2, IFC-2 and IFD-2 leads to intestinal lumen dilation although depletion of IFC-1, IFD-1 and IFP-1 do not. Ultrastructural analyses of loss of function mutants further show that IFC-2 mutants have a rarefied endotube and IFB-2 mutants lack an endotube altogether. Remarkably, almost all IFB-2-and IFC-2-deficient animals develop to fertile adults. But developmental retardation, reduced brood size, altered survival and increased sensitivity to microbial toxin, osmotic and oxidative stress are seen in both mutants albeit to different degrees. Taken together, we propose that individual intestinal IF polypeptides contribute in different ways to endotube morphogenesis and cooperate to cope with changing environments.

The enrichment of intermediate filaments in the apical cytoplasm of intestinal cells is evolutionarily conserved, forming a sheath that is anchored to apical junctions and positioned below the microvillar brush border, which suggests a protective intracellular barrier function. To test this, we used Caenorhabditis elegans, the intestinal cells of which are endowed with a particularly dense intermediate filament-rich layer that is referred to as the endotube. We found alterations in endotube structure and intermediate filament expression upon infection with nematicidal B. thuringiensis or treatment with its major pore-forming toxin crystal protein Cry5B. Endotube impairment due to defined genetic mutations of intermediate filaments and their regulators results in increased Cry5B sensitivity as evidenced by elevated larval arrest, prolonged time of larval development and reduced survival. Phenotype severity reflects the extent of endotube alterations and correlates with reduced rescue upon toxin removal. The results provide in vivo evidence for a major protective role of a properly configured intermediate filament network as an intracellular barrier in intestinal cells. This notion is further supported by increased sensitivity of endotube mutants to oxidative and osmotic stress.

Abstract:The cytoplasmic intermediate filament cytoskeleton provides a tissue-specific threedimensional scaffolding with unique context-dependent organizational features. This is particularly apparent in the intestinal epithelium, in which the intermediate filament network is localized below the apical terminal web region and is anchored to the apical junction complex. This arrangement is conserved from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to humans. The review summarizes compositional, morphological and functional features of the polarized intermediate filament cytoskeleton in intestinal cells of nematodes and mammals. We emphasize the cross talk of intermediate filaments with the actin-and tubulin-based cytoskeleton. Possible links of the intermediate filament system to the distribution of apical membrane proteins and the cell polarity complex are highlighted. Finally, we discuss how these properties relate to the establishment and maintenance of polarity in the intestine.

The intestine is an organ essential to organismal nutrient absorption, metabolic control, barrier function and immunoprotection. The Caenorhabditis elegans intestine consists of 20 cells harboring a dense intermediate filament network positioned below the apical plasma membrane that forms a junction-anchored sheath around the intestinal lumen. This evolutionarily conserved arrangement provides mechanical and overall stress-protection, and it serves as an important model for deciphering the role of intestinal architecture in metazoan biology. We recently reported that the loss-of-function mutation of the intestinal intermediate filament organizer IFO-1 perturbs this architecture, leading to reduced body size and reproduction. Here, we demonstrate that the IFO-1 mutation dramatically affects cholesterol metabolism. Mutants showed an increased sensitivity to cholesterol depletion, reduced cholesterol uptake, and cholesterol transfer to the gonads, which is also observed in worms completely lacking an intermediate filament network. Accordingly, we found striking similarities to transcriptome and lipidome profiles of a nuclear hormone receptor (NHR)-8 mutant. NHR-8 is homologous to mammalian LXR (liver X receptor) that serves as a sterol sensor and transcriptional regulator of lipid metabolism. Remarkably, increasing exogenous cholesterol partially rescues the developmental retardation in IFO-1 mutants. Our results uncover a novel link of the intestinal intermediate filament cytoskeleton to cholesterol metabolism that contributes to compromised growth and reproduction.

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