Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The essential coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) plays important roles in metabolic reactions and cell regulation in all organisms. Bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals use different pathways to synthesize NAD+. Our molecular and genetic data demonstrate that in the unicellular green...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Huawen Lin, Alan L Kwan, Susan K Dutcher
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2010-09-01
Series:PLoS Genetics
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1001105&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850133985040007168
author Huawen Lin
Alan L Kwan
Susan K Dutcher
author_facet Huawen Lin
Alan L Kwan
Susan K Dutcher
author_sort Huawen Lin
collection DOAJ
description The essential coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) plays important roles in metabolic reactions and cell regulation in all organisms. Bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals use different pathways to synthesize NAD+. Our molecular and genetic data demonstrate that in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas NAD+ is synthesized from aspartate (de novo synthesis), as in plants, or nicotinamide, as in mammals (salvage synthesis). The de novo pathway requires five different enzymes: L-aspartate oxidase (ASO), quinolinate synthetase (QS), quinolate phosphoribosyltransferase (QPT), nicotinate/nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NMNAT), and NAD+ synthetase (NS). Sequence similarity searches, gene isolation and sequencing of mutant loci indicate that mutations in each enzyme result in a nicotinamide-requiring mutant phenotype in the previously isolated nic mutants. We rescued the mutant phenotype by the introduction of BAC DNA (nic2-1 and nic13-1) or plasmids with cloned genes (nic1-1 and nic15-1) into the mutants. NMNAT, which is also in the de novo pathway, and nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) constitute the nicotinamide-dependent salvage pathway. A mutation in NAMPT (npt1-1) has no obvious growth defect and is not nicotinamide-dependent. However, double mutant strains with the npt1-1 mutation and any of the nic mutations are inviable. When the de novo pathway is inactive, the salvage pathway is essential to Chlamydomonas for the synthesis of NAD+. A homolog of the human SIRT6-like gene, SRT2, is upregulated in the NS mutant, which shows a longer vegetative life span than wild-type cells. Our results suggest that Chlamydomonas is an excellent model system to study NAD+ metabolism and cell longevity.
format Article
id doaj-art-53c82afa1452483aa668d73d698439a8
institution OA Journals
issn 1553-7390
1553-7404
language English
publishDate 2010-09-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS Genetics
spelling doaj-art-53c82afa1452483aa668d73d698439a82025-08-20T02:31:50ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Genetics1553-73901553-74042010-09-0169e100110510.1371/journal.pgen.1001105Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.Huawen LinAlan L KwanSusan K DutcherThe essential coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) plays important roles in metabolic reactions and cell regulation in all organisms. Bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals use different pathways to synthesize NAD+. Our molecular and genetic data demonstrate that in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas NAD+ is synthesized from aspartate (de novo synthesis), as in plants, or nicotinamide, as in mammals (salvage synthesis). The de novo pathway requires five different enzymes: L-aspartate oxidase (ASO), quinolinate synthetase (QS), quinolate phosphoribosyltransferase (QPT), nicotinate/nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NMNAT), and NAD+ synthetase (NS). Sequence similarity searches, gene isolation and sequencing of mutant loci indicate that mutations in each enzyme result in a nicotinamide-requiring mutant phenotype in the previously isolated nic mutants. We rescued the mutant phenotype by the introduction of BAC DNA (nic2-1 and nic13-1) or plasmids with cloned genes (nic1-1 and nic15-1) into the mutants. NMNAT, which is also in the de novo pathway, and nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) constitute the nicotinamide-dependent salvage pathway. A mutation in NAMPT (npt1-1) has no obvious growth defect and is not nicotinamide-dependent. However, double mutant strains with the npt1-1 mutation and any of the nic mutations are inviable. When the de novo pathway is inactive, the salvage pathway is essential to Chlamydomonas for the synthesis of NAD+. A homolog of the human SIRT6-like gene, SRT2, is upregulated in the NS mutant, which shows a longer vegetative life span than wild-type cells. Our results suggest that Chlamydomonas is an excellent model system to study NAD+ metabolism and cell longevity.https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1001105&type=printable
spellingShingle Huawen Lin
Alan L Kwan
Susan K Dutcher
Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
PLoS Genetics
title Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
title_full Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
title_fullStr Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
title_full_unstemmed Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
title_short Synthesizing and salvaging NAD: lessons learned from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
title_sort synthesizing and salvaging nad lessons learned from chlamydomonas reinhardtii
url https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1001105&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT huawenlin synthesizingandsalvagingnadlessonslearnedfromchlamydomonasreinhardtii
AT alanlkwan synthesizingandsalvagingnadlessonslearnedfromchlamydomonasreinhardtii
AT susankdutcher synthesizingandsalvagingnadlessonslearnedfromchlamydomonasreinhardtii