Abstract
A small model animal Caenorhabditis elegans is particularly suitable for genetic analysis, but cell-type-specific biochemistry is a formidable task in this organism. Here we describe techniques utilizing transgenic C. elegans strains expressing epitope-tagged proteins for analyzing biochemical events, such as protein phosphorylation and formation of protein complex, in a small number of a specific group of cells at a defined stage of development. The techniques are useful for elucidating that C. elegans semaphorin-plexin signaling systems regulate epidermal morphogenesis through modulating TOR signaling and its downstream targets.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Roy PJ, Zheng H, Warren CE et al (2000) mab-20 encodes Semaphorin-2a and is required to prevent ectopic cell contacts during epidermal morphogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans. Development 127:755–767
Fujii T, Nakao F, Shibata Y et al (2002) Caenorhabditis elegans PlexinA, PLX-1, interacts with transmembrane semaphorins and regulates epidermal morphogenesis. Development 129:2053–2063
Ginzburg VE, Roy PJ, Culotti JG (2002) Semaphorin 1a and semaphorin 1b are required for correct epidermal cell positioning. Development 129:2065–2078
Dalpé G, Zhang LW, Zheng H et al (2004) Conversion of cell movement responses to Semaphorin-1 and Plexin-1 from attraction to repulsion by lowered levels of specific RAC GTPases in C. elegans. Development 131:2073–2088. doi:10.1242/dev.01063
Ikegami R, Zheng H, Ong SH et al (2004) Integration of semaphorin-2A/MAB-20, ephrin-4, and UNC-129 TGF-beta signaling pathways regulates sorting of distinct sensory rays in C. elegans. Dev Cell 6:383–395
Nakao F, Hudson ML, Suzuki M et al (2007) The PLEXIN PLX-2 and the ephrin EFN-4 have distinct roles in MAB-20/Semaphorin 2A signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans morphogenesis. Genetics 176:1591–1607. doi:10.1534/genetics.106.067116
Liu Z, Fujii T, Nukazuka A et al (2005) C. elegans PlexinA PLX-1 mediates a cell contact-dependent stop signal in vulval precursor cells. Dev Biol 282:138–151. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2005.03.002
Wang X, Zhang W, Cheever T et al (2008) The C. elegans L1CAM homologue LAD-2 functions as a coreceptor in MAB-20/Sema2 mediated axon guidance. J Cell Biol 180:233–246. doi:10.1083/jcb.200704178
Mizumoto K, Shen K (2013) Interaxonal interaction defines tiled presynaptic innervation in C. elegans. Neuron 77:655–666. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.12.031
Nukazuka A, Fujisawa H, Inada T et al (2008) Semaphorin controls epidermal morphogenesis by stimulating mRNA translation via eIF2alpha in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genes Dev 22:1025–1036. doi:10.1101/gad.1644008
Nukazuka A, Tamaki S, Matsumoto K et al (2011) A shift of the TOR adaptor from Rictor towards Raptor by semaphorin in C. elegans. Nat Commun 2:484. doi:10.1038/ncomms1495
Brenner S (1968) The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 77:71–94
Wood WB (1988) Introduction to C. elegans biology. In: Wood WB (ed) The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, pp 1–16
Harris HE, Epstein HF (1977) Myosin and paramyosin of Caenorhabditis elegans: biochemical and structural properties of wild-type and mutant proteins. Cell 10:709–719
Cox GN, Kusch M, Edgar RS (1981) Cuticle of Caenorhabditis elegans: its isolation and partial characterization. J Cell Biol 90:7–17
Ono S (1999) Purification and biochemical characterization of actin from Caenorhabditis elegans: its difference from rabbit muscle actin in the interaction with nematode ADF/cofilin. Cell Motil Cytoskeleton 43:128–136, 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0169(1999)43:2<128::AID-CM4>3.0.CO;2-C
Zhang Y, Ma C, Delohery T et al (2002) Identification of genes expressed in C. elegans touch receptor neurons. Nature 418:331–335. doi:10.1038/nature00891
Von Stetina SE, Watson JD, Fox RM et al (2007) Cell-specific microarray profiling experiments reveal a comprehensive picture of gene expression in the C. elegans nervous system. Genome Biol 8:R135. doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-7-r135
Roy PJ, Stuart JM, Lund J et al (2002) Chromosomal clustering of muscle-expressed genes in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 418:975–979. doi:10.1038/nature01012
Kunitomo H, Uesugi H, Kohara Y et al (2005) Identification of ciliated sensory neuron-expressed genes in Caenorhabditis elegans using targeted pull-down of poly(A) tails. Genome Biol 6:R17. doi:10.1186/gb-2005-6-2-r17
Zanin E, Dumont J, Gassmann R et al (2011) Affinity purification of protein complexes in C. elegans. Methods Cell Biol 106:289–322. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-544172-8.00011-6
Emmons SW (2005) Male development. In: Driscoll M, Murphy CT, The C. elegans Research Community (eds) WormBook. Retrieved from http://www.wormbook.org. doi:10.1895/wormbook.1.33.1
Portman DS, Emmons SW (2000) The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors LIN-32 and HLH-2 function together in multiple steps of a C. elegans neuronal sublineage. Development 127:5415–5426
Mello C, Fire A (1995) DNA transformation. Methods Cell Biol 48:451–482
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers 22370097, 25291044) and MEXT KAKENHI (Grant Number 25111708) to S.T.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Nukazuka, A., Takagi, S. (2017). Characterizing Semaphorin Signaling In Vivo Using C. elegans . In: Terman, J. (eds) Semaphorin Signaling. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1493. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6448-2_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6448-2_34
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6446-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6448-2
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols