Nutritional requirements for pantothenate, pantethine or coenzyme A in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living nematode cultured in an axenic medium, the Caenorhabditis elegans Maintenance Medium (CeMM), which contains B-vitamins, salts, amino acids, nucleic acid substituents, growth factors and glucose as an energy source. After initial experiments established that either pantothenate or pantethine would satisfy the vitamin B5 requirement in C. elegans, reproduction in the nematodes was measured in eight equimolar concentrations of calcium pantothenate, pantethine or coenzyme A. The optimal levels for pantothenate were found to be 7.5, 30 and 120 µg ml −1 . The optimal levels for pantethine and coenzyme A were found to be 35 µg ml −1 and 100 µg ml −1 , respectively. Among the three compounds, coenzyme A (at 100 µg/ml) supported a significantly greater population growth and, perhaps, is a more metabolically active form. Mild toxicity was demonstrated for pantothenate at 480 µg ml −1 , pantethine at 560 and 140 µg ml −1 , and coenzyme A was found to exhibit toxicity at 410 and 1700 µg ml −1 . Based on our results, we recommend that in the future the CeMM could be supplemented with pantothenate (7.5 µg ml −1 ) alone.

Transcriptome analyses reveal protein and domain families that delineate stage-related development in the economically important parasitic nematodes, Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora

“…The specific enzymes involved are associated with pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis [35], and thiamine metabolism. All three peptides were up-regulated only in adult females.…”

History of research on C. elegans and other free-living nematodes as model organisms

“…This medium is rarely used, although it is famous for space shipping and C. elegans survival after the Columbia space shuttle disaster (Szewczyk et al, 2005). Nutritional requirements of C. elegans have been studied by Nancy Lu and her team in Berkeley and San Jose, California (Lu et al, 1977;Lu et al, 1983;Lu and Goetsch, 1993;Perelman and Lu, 2000;Balachandar and Lu, 2005;Zhao and Lu, 2008;Xiong and Lu, 2011). The genetic screens for nutritional mutants that Dougherty dreamt of are still to come, but other physiological studies are promising.…”

Environmental selection overrides host selection in a horizontally acquired microbiota

“…While we did not track expression or activity of biosynthetic enzymes, we did observe that worms maintained on the evolved, MYb11-enriched communities, reached greater population sizes than on the ancestral, balanced community. Given that both vitamins are essential 35 , and that thiamine attenuated mitochondrial stress in a C. elegans disease model of dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved.…”