Spaceflight results in increase of thick filament but not thin filament proteins in the paramyosin mutant of Caenorhabditis elegans

Adachi, Ryota; Takaya, Tomohide; Kuriyama, Kana; Higashibata, Akira; Ishioka, Noriaki; Kagawa, Hiroaki

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2007.10.016

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Since we are dealing with an entire organism and not with a single cell line, our results are in line with the observation reported above. Moreover, our data are in perfect agreement with the observation of Adachi et al (2008) who did not detect significant changes of actin and tropomyosin amount in Caenorhabditis elegans upon space flight. Accordingly, besides actin, also the amount of α‐tropomyosin (spot 58), another important component of thin filaments, does not change in X. laevis in RPM (Figure 2).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Protein pattern ofXenopus laevisembryos grown in simulated microgravity

et al. 2011

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Numerous studies indicate that microgravity affects cell growth and differentiation in many living organisms, and various processes are modified when cells are placed under conditions of weightlessness. However, until now, there is no coherent explanation for these observations, and little information is available concerning the biomolecules involved. Our aim has been to investigate the protein pattern of Xenopus laevis embryos exposed to simulated microgravity during the first 6 days of development. A proteomic approach was applied to compare the protein profiles of Xenopus embryos developed in simulated microgravity and in normal conditions. Attention was focused on embryos that do not present visible malformations in order to investigate if weightlessness has effects at protein level in the absence of macroscopic alterations. The data presented strongly suggest that some of the major components of the cytoskeleton vary in such conditions. Three major findings are described for the first time: (i) the expression of important factors involved in the organization and stabilization of the cytoskeleton, such as Arp (actin-related protein) 3 and stathmin, is heavily affected by microgravity; (ii) the amount of the two major cytoskeletal proteins, actin and tubulin, do not change in such conditions; however, (iii) an increase in the tyrosine nitration of these two proteins can be detected. The data suggest that, in the absence of morphological alterations, simulated microgravity affects the intracellular movement system of cells by altering cytoskeletal proteins heavily involved in the regulation of cytoskeleton remodelling.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Protein pattern ofXenopus laevisembryos grown in simulated microgravity

et al. 2011

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“…Phalloidin and anti-paramyosin staining of post-flight animals revealed no gross morphologic changes, including no change in the width of the fibers. While these results indicate a lack of spaceflight induced “atrophy” of the fibers, the animals used for histologic analysis did not show the same depression in paramyosin and myosin heavy chain B (Adachi et al, 2008) as the animals that had a post-flight movement defect (Higashibata et al, 2006), thus reinforcing the idea that there are individual specific differences that underlie spaceflight-induced alterations in muscle. If this is true than C. elegans would appear to mirror the situation in human beings where there appears to be great variability in muscle atrophy in response to spaceflight (Fitts et al, 2001, Adams et al, 2003).…”

Section: Muscle Adaptation In Spaceflightmentioning

confidence: 83%

Review of the results from the International C. elegans first experiment (ICE-FIRST)

Adenle

Johnsen

Szewczyk

2009

Advances in Space Research

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In an effort to speed the rate of discovery in space biology and medicine NASA introduced the now defunct model specimen program. Four nations applied this approach with C. elegans in the ICE-FIRST experiment. Here we review the standardized culturing as well as the investigation of muscle adaptation, space biology radiation, and gene expression in response to spaceflight. Muscle studies demonstrated that decreased expression of myogenic transcription factors underlie the decreased expression of myosin seen in flight, a response that would appear to be evolutionarily conserved. Radiation studies demonstrated that radiation damaged cells should be able to be removed via apoptosis in flight, and that C. elegans can be employed as a biological accumulating dosimeter. Lastly, ICE-FIRST gave us our first glimpse at the genomic response to spaceflight, suggesting that altered Insulin and/or TGF-beta signaling in-flight may underlie many of the biological changes seen in response to spaceflight. The fact that the results obtained with C. elegans appear to have strong similarities in human beings suggests that not only will C. elegans prove an invaluable model for understanding the fundamental biological changes seen during spaceflight but that it may also be invaluable for understanding those changes associated with human health concerns in space.

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“…STS-107 showed C. elegans could survive a relatively unprotected atmospheric reentry and began the validation of the use of a chemically defined liquid growth medium in spaceflight experiments (Szewczyk et al, 2005). ICE-FIRST: i) validated use of the chemically defined medium in spaceflight experiments (Szewczyk et al, 2008); ii) confirmed a lack of developmental abnormalities (Szewczyk et al, 2008); iii) verified that apoptosis occurs normally in spaceflight (Higashitani et al, 2005); iv) showed that C. elegans display many of the same changes in muscle gene expression as mammals (Adachi et al, 2008, Higashibata et al, 2006, Selch et al, 2008); v) determined that spaceflight partially rescued a muscular defect in a paramyosin mutant strain (Adachi et al, 2008) and intramuscular protein aggregation (Honda et al, 2012); vi) suggested that altered metabolic (Insulin-like and/or TGF-beta) signaling pathways were responsible for the in-flight changes in gene expression (Selch et al, 2008); vii) determined that some genes down-regulated during spaceflight are linked to longevity processes in C. elegans (Honda et al, 2012); and viii) confirmed that the eTI balancer system can easily capture increased mutagenic effects of spaceflight (Zhao et al, 2006) and postulated that the eTI system could be used as a “biological dosimeter” to measure the long-term mutagenic effects of spaceflight (Zhao et al, 2005). Shijian-8 explored some of the potential molecular mechanisms behind spaceflight muscular atrophy (Wang et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Evaluation of the fluids mixing enclosure system for life science experiments during a commercial Caenorhabditis elegans spaceflight experiment

Warren¹,

Golden

Hanover

et al. 2013

Advances in Space Research

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The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a United States national science, technology, engineering, and mathematics initiative that aims to increase student interest in science by offering opportunities to perform spaceflight experiments. The experiment detailed here was selected and flown aboard the third SSEP mission and the first SSEP mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Caenorhabditis elegans is a small, transparent, self-fertilizing hermaphroditic roundworm that is commonly used in biological experiments both on Earth and in Low Earth Orbit. Past experiments have found decreased expression of mRNA for several genes whose expression can be controlled by the FOXO transcription factor DAF-16. We flew a daf-16 mutant and control worms to determine if the effects of spaceflight on C. elegans are mediated by DAF-16. The experiment used a Type Two Fluids Mixing Enclosure (FME), developed by Nanoracks LLC, and was delivered to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon and returned aboard the Russian Soyuz. The short time interval between experiment selection and the flight rendered preflight experiment verification tests impossible. In addition, published research regarding the viability of the FME in life science experiments was not available. The experiment was therefore structured in such a way as to gather the needed data. Here we report that C. elegans can survive relatively short storage and activation in the FME but cannot produce viable populations for post-flight analysis on extended missions. The FME appears to support short-duration life science experiments, potentially on supply or crew exchange missions, but not on longer ISS expeditions. Additionally, the flown FME was not properly activated, reportedly due to a flaw in training procedures. We suggest that a modified transparent FME could prevent similar failures in future flight experiments.

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Spaceflight results in increase of thick filament but not thin filament proteins in the paramyosin mutant of Caenorhabditis elegans

Cited by 17 publications

References 33 publications

Protein pattern ofXenopus laevisembryos grown in simulated microgravity

Protein pattern ofXenopus laevisembryos grown in simulated microgravity

Review of the results from the International C. elegans first experiment (ICE-FIRST)

Evaluation of the fluids mixing enclosure system for life science experiments during a commercial Caenorhabditis elegans spaceflight experiment

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