There were errors published in J. Cell Sci. 124, 2143Sci. 124, -2152 In the section given below, PtdIns(3,4,5)P 3 was on four occasions incorrectly printed instead of the correct Ins(1,4,5)P 3 .We apologise for this mistake. Increased mitochondrial Ca2+ drives the adaptive metabolic boost observed during early phases of ER stress Increases in mitochondrial respiration and ATP production are often consequences of increases in mitochondrial Ca 2+ (Green and Wang, 2010). In order to determine whether early phases of ER stress induced by tunicamycin increased mitochondrial Ca 2+ , we treated cells expressing cytosolic or mitochondrial aequorins with histamine [which evokes Ins(1,4,5)P 3 -dependent Ca2+ release] and compared their mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake. We observed that histamine led to a mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake that was significantly higher in tunicamycinpretreated cells (P<0.05; 4 hours) than in untreated cells (Fig. 6A). Cytosolic Ca 2+ increased similarly in tunicamycin-treated and untreated cells (Fig. 6B). These results indicate that the differences in mitochondrial Ca 2+ levels are not due to altered Ca 2+ release mediated by the Ins(1,4,5)P 3 receptor but to an enhanced mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake, presumably due to the increased apposition of ER and mitochondrial Ca 2+ channels. By using a different dye, Fura-2, we monitored the peak cytosolic Ca 2+ levels after thapsigargin addition, reflecting the kinetics of Ca 2+ release after sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ -ATPase (SERCA) inhibition. After 4 hours of tunicamycin treatment, the thapsigargin-induced Ca 2+ peak was increased, and it was further elevated by inhibition of mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake using Ru360 (Fig. 6C). These results suggest that, besides the Ins(1,4,5)P 3 -receptor-mediated direct Ca 2+ transfer from the ER to neighboring mitochondria, an additional phenomenon associated with the early phases of ER stress involves Ca 2+ leak from the ER, also resulting in mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake. Indeed, no mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake following the thapsigargin-induced Ca 2+ leak was observed in Mfn2-knockout cells (Fig. 6D), which is reflected by the lack of effect of Ru360. This result further indicates that juxtaposition of mitochondria with the ER is necessary for the mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake evoked by Ca 2+ leak during early phases of ER stress.Finally, to test whether mitochondrial Ca 2+ levels control the metabolic mitochondrial boost, we measured oxygen consumption rates resulting from OXPHOS in the presence of the Ins(1,4,5)P 3 receptor inhibitor xestospongin B or the mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake inhibitor RuRed. We observed that both xestospongin B and RuRed decreased the rate of oxygen consumption after tunicamycin treatment (Fig. 7A,B), which confirms that increased mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake, resulting from ER-mitochondrial coupling, is necessary for the metabolic response observed during early phases of ER stress. Therefore, in order to evaluate whether the early metabolic boost forms part of an adaptive response triggere...

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a dynamic intracellular organelle with multiple functions essential for cellular homeostasis, development, and stress responsiveness. In response to cellular stress, a well-established signaling cascade, the unfolded protein response (UPR), is activated. This intricate mechanism is an important means of reestablishing cellular homeostasis and alleviating the inciting stress. Now, emerging evidence has demonstrated that the UPR influences cellular metabolism through diverse mechanisms, including calcium and lipid transfer, raising the prospect of involvement of these processes in the pathogenesis of disease, including neurodegeneration, cancer, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Here, we review the distinct functions of the ER and UPR from a metabolic point of view, highlighting their association with prevalent pathologies.

We used a novel study design to measure dietary organophosphorus pesticide exposure in a group of 23 elementary school-age children through urinary biomonitoring. We substituted most of children’s conventional diets with organic food items for 5 consecutive days and collected two spot daily urine samples, first-morning and before-bedtime voids, throughout the 15-day study period. We found that the median urinary concentrations of the specific metabolites for malathion and chlorpyrifos decreased to the nondetect levels immediately after the introduction of organic diets and remained nondetectable until the conventional diets were reintroduced. The median concentrations for other organophosphorus pesticide metabolites were also lower in the organic diet consumption days; however, the detection of those metabolites was not frequent enough to show any statistical significance. In conclusion, we were able to demonstrate that an organic diet provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposures to organophosphorus pesticides that are commonly used in agricultural production. We also concluded that these children were most likely exposed to these organophosphorus pesticides exclusively through their diet. To our knowledge, this is the first study to employ a longitudinal design with a dietary intervention to assess children’s exposure to pesticides. It provides new and persuasive evidence of the effectiveness of this intervention.

We report population-based concentrations, stratified by age, sex, and racial/ethnic groups, of dialkyl phosphate (DAP) metabolites of multiple organophosphorus pesticides. We measured dimethylphosphate (DMP), dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP), dimethyldithiophosphate (DMDTP), diethylphosphate (DEP), diethylthiophosphate (DETP), and diethyldithiophosphate (DEDTP) concentrations in 1,949 urine samples collected in U.S. residents 6-59 years of age during 1999 and 2000 as a part of the ongoing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We detected each DAP metabolite in more than 50% of the samples, with DEP being detected most frequently (71%) at a limit of detection of 0.2 microg/L. The geometric means for the metabolites detected in more than 60% of the samples were 1.85 microg/L for DMTP and 1.04 microg/L for DEP. The 95th percentiles for each metabolite were DMP, 13 microg/L; DMTP, 46 microg/L; DMDTP, 19 micro g/L; DEP, 13 microg/L; DETP, 2.2 microg/L; and DEDTP, 0.87 microg/L. We determined the molar sums of the dimethyl-containing and diethyl-containing metabolites; their geometric mean concentrations were 49.4 and 10.5 nmol/L, respectively, and their 95th percentiles were 583 and 108 nmol/L, respectively. These data are also presented as creatinine-adjusted concentrations. Multivariate analyses showed concentrations of DAPs in children 6-11 years of age that were consistently significantly higher than in adults and often higher than in adolescents. Although the concentrations between sexes and among racial/ethnic groups varied, no significant differences were observed. These data will be important in evaluating the impact of organophosphorus pesticide exposure in the U.S. population and the effectiveness of regulatory actions.