Diet-responsive transcriptional regulation of insulin in a single neuron controls systemic metabolism.

Metabolic homeostasis is coordinated through a robust network of signaling pathways acting across all tissues. A key part of this network is insulin-like signaling, which is fundamental for surviving glucose stress. Here, we show that Caenorhabditis elegans fed excess dietary glucose reduce insulin-...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ava Handley, Qiuli Wu, Tessa Sherry, Rebecca Cornell, Roger Pocock
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-05-01
Series:PLoS Biology
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001655&type=printable
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Summary:Metabolic homeostasis is coordinated through a robust network of signaling pathways acting across all tissues. A key part of this network is insulin-like signaling, which is fundamental for surviving glucose stress. Here, we show that Caenorhabditis elegans fed excess dietary glucose reduce insulin-1 (INS-1) expression specifically in the BAG glutamatergic sensory neurons. We demonstrate that INS-1 expression in the BAG neurons is directly controlled by the transcription factor ETS-5, which is also down-regulated by glucose. We further find that INS-1 acts exclusively from the BAG neurons, and not other INS-1-expressing neurons, to systemically inhibit fat storage via the insulin-like receptor DAF-2. Together, these findings reveal an intertissue regulatory pathway where regulation of insulin expression in a specific neuron controls systemic metabolism in response to excess dietary glucose.
ISSN:1544-9173
1545-7885