iScience (Jul 2022)

SKN-1 regulates stress resistance downstream of amino catabolism pathways

  • Phillip A. Frankino,
  • Talha F. Siddiqi,
  • Theodore Bolas,
  • Raz Bar-Ziv,
  • Holly K. Gildea,
  • Hanlin Zhang,
  • Ryo Higuchi-Sanabria,
  • Andrew Dillin

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 7
p. 104571

Abstract

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Summary: The deleterious potential to generate oxidative stress is a fundamental challenge to metabolism. The oxidative stress response transcription factor, SKN-1/NRF2, can sense and respond to changes in metabolic state, although the mechanism and consequences of this remain unknown. Here, we performed a genetic screen in C. elegans targeting amino acid catabolism and identified multiple metabolic pathways as regulators of SKN-1 activity. We found that knockdown of the conserved amidohydrolase T12A2.1/amdh-1 activates a unique subset of SKN-1 regulated genes. Interestingly, this transcriptional program is independent of canonical P38-MAPK signaling components but requires ELT-3, NHR-49 and MDT-15. This activation of SKN-1 is dependent on upstream histidine catabolism genes HALY-1 and Y51H4A.7/UROC-1 and may occur through accumulation of a catabolite, 4-imidazolone-5-propanoate. Activating SKN-1 results in increased oxidative stress resistance but decreased survival to heat stress. Together, our data suggest that SKN-1 acts downstream of key catabolic pathways to influence physiology and stress resistance.

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