Study of the transgenerational effects of caloric restriction on nematodes c. elegans
| Grant number: | 17/22057-5 |
| Support type: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |
| Effective date (Start): | March 01, 2018 |
| Effective date (End): | October 02, 2020 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics |
| Cooperation agreement: | Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) |
| Principal Investigator: | Marcelo Alves da Silva Mori |
| Grantee: | Willian Goulart Salgueiro |
| Home Institution: | Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant: | 17/01184-9 - CAMeLEOm: cross-species analysis of metabolic, lifespan effects and omics of dietary restriction mimetics, AP.TEM |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 19/14391-8 - Screening and characterization of Dicer regulators in c. elegans, BE.EP.MS |
Abstract Cholesterol is an essential precursor for many physiological processes, mainly by giving rise to a big array of endocrine signals. However, the excessive intake of a lipid and cholesterol rich occidental diet may lead to obesity and dyslipidemia, what in turn increase the risk for metabolic and cardiovasculardiseases. Besides that, there is a growing amount of evidence which suggests that many metabolic diseases, including obesity and dyslipidemia, may be transgenerationally inherited. Such possibility is alarming, once it might allow the perpetration of their effects for generations. Considering that basic research may be limited by time and money consuming activities concerning mammals handling, the nematode C. elegans arises as an amenable alternative. This invertebrate has relatively conserved metabolic pathways regarding fatty acids synthesis, storage and mobilization. These same pathways are known for being responsive to cholesterol derivatives. Importantly, C. elegans do not synthesize cholesterol, thus its levels can be controlled through diet. Also, its short lifespan and generation time render C. elegans the ability to be employed in transgenerational studies. Not published data of our laboratory shows that C. elegans P0 parental generation supplemented with high cholesterol levels gives birth to F1 and F2 filial generations, cultivated under regular dietary conditions, which have altered lifespan. Thus, this proposal has as its main objective to understand how high cholesterol levels alter C. elegans physiology, and also to elucidate the mechanisms by which these alterations are transgenerationally inherited. (AU) | |