TY - JOUR
T1 - Lysosome-related organelles in intestinal cells are a zinc storage site in C. elegans
AU - Roh, Hyun Cheol
AU - Collier, Sara
AU - Guthrie, James
AU - Robertson, J. David
AU - Kornfeld, Kerry
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Greg Hermann, Barth Grant, the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, and the National Bioresource Project for providing strains; Andrew Fire, Michael Nonet, and Judith Austin for providing plasmids; and Daniel Schneider for technical assistance. We are grateful to Tim Schedl, Stuart Kornfeld, Jeanne Nerbonne, Jason Mills, and Peter Chivers for helpful advice about the manuscript. This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health to K.K. (GM068598, CA84271, and AG026561). K.K. was a Senior Scholar of the Ellison Medical Foundation. H.C.R. was a scholar of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.
PY - 2012/1/4
Y1 - 2012/1/4
N2 - Zinc is an essential trace element involved in many biological processes and human diseases. Because zinc deficiency and excess are deleterious, animals require homeostatic mechanisms to maintain zinc levels in response to dietary fluctuations. Here, we demonstrate that lysosome-related organelles in intestinal cells of C. elegans, called gut granules, function as the major site of zinc storage. Zinc storage in gut granules promotes detoxification and subsequent mobilization, linking cellular and organismal zinc metabolism. The cation diffusion facilitator protein CDF-2 plays a critical role in this process by transporting zinc into gut granules. In response to high dietary zinc, gut granules displayed structural changes characterized by a bilobed morphology with asymmetric distributions of zinc and molecular markers. We defined a genetic pathway that mediates the formation of bilobed morphology. These findings elucidate mechanisms of zinc storage, detoxification, and mobilization in C. elegans and may be relevant to other animals.
AB - Zinc is an essential trace element involved in many biological processes and human diseases. Because zinc deficiency and excess are deleterious, animals require homeostatic mechanisms to maintain zinc levels in response to dietary fluctuations. Here, we demonstrate that lysosome-related organelles in intestinal cells of C. elegans, called gut granules, function as the major site of zinc storage. Zinc storage in gut granules promotes detoxification and subsequent mobilization, linking cellular and organismal zinc metabolism. The cation diffusion facilitator protein CDF-2 plays a critical role in this process by transporting zinc into gut granules. In response to high dietary zinc, gut granules displayed structural changes characterized by a bilobed morphology with asymmetric distributions of zinc and molecular markers. We defined a genetic pathway that mediates the formation of bilobed morphology. These findings elucidate mechanisms of zinc storage, detoxification, and mobilization in C. elegans and may be relevant to other animals.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855471897&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cmet.2011.12.003
DO - 10.1016/j.cmet.2011.12.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 22225878
AN - SCOPUS:84855471897
SN - 1550-4131
VL - 15
SP - 88
EP - 99
JO - Cell Metabolism
JF - Cell Metabolism
IS - 1
ER -