The intron binding protein EMB-4 is an opposite regulator of cold and high temperature tolerance in Caenorhabditis elegans

Akane Ohta; Yuki Sato; Kazuho Isono; Takuma Kajino; Keisuke Tanaka; Teruaki Taji; Atsushi Kuhara

doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae293

The intron binding protein EMB-4 is an opposite regulator of cold and high temperature tolerance in Caenorhabditis elegans

PNAS Nexus. 2024 Jul 26;3(8):pgae293. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae293. eCollection 2024 Aug.

Authors

Akane Ohta^{1

2

3}, Yuki Sato^{1

3}, Kazuho Isono⁴, Takuma Kajino⁴, Keisuke Tanaka⁵, Teruaki Taji⁴, Atsushi Kuhara^{1

2

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Natural Science, Konan University, 8-9-1 Okamoto, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 658-8501, Japan.
² Faculty of Science and Engineering, Konan University, 8-9-1 Okamoto, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 658-8501, Japan.
³ Institute for Integrative Neurobiology, Konan University, 8-9-1 Okamoto, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 658-8501, Japan.
⁴ Department of Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1 Sakuragaoka, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan.
⁵ NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1 Sakuragaoka, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan.
⁶ AMED-PRIME, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, 1-7-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0004, Japan.

Abstract

Adaptation and tolerance to changes in heat and cold temperature are essential for survival and proliferation in plants and animals. However, there is no clear information regarding the common molecules between animals and plants. In this study, we found that heat, and cold tolerance of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is oppositely regulated by the RNA-binding protein EMB-4, whose plant homolog contains polymorphism causing heat tolerance diversity. Caenorhabditis elegans alters its cold and heat tolerance depending on the previous cultivation temperature, wherein EMB-4 respectively acts as a positive and negative controller of heat and cold tolerance by altering gene expression. Among the genes whose expression is regulated by EMB-4, a phospholipid scramblase, and an acid sphingomyelinase, which are involved in membrane lipid metabolism, were found to play essential roles in the negative regulation of heat tolerance.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; RNA-binding protein; cold tolerance; heat tolerance.