The Role of Nuclear Receptor NHR-64 in Fat Storage Regulation in Caenorhabditis elegans
Figure 1
Inactivation of nhr-64 by RNAi increases fat stores, growth rate, and brood size of fat-6;fat-7 double mutants grown on E. coli strain HT115.
Values determined to be significantly different from worms treated with empty vector, *P<0.05, **P<0.01. (A) Inactivation of nhr-64 increased Nile Red staining of fixed wild type and fat-6;fat-7 double mutants. Images were captured at using identical settings and exposure time for each image. Animals shown are young adults. Anterior is left, posterior is right. (B) Inactivation of nhr-64 increased the triacylglycerol/total lipid (TAG/TL) ratio in fat-6;fat-7 double mutants. Total lipids were extracted from three independent biological replicates and separated into triacylglycerol and phospholipid fractions using thin layer chromatography and quantified using gas chromatography. Error bars are standard deviation. (C) Improved the growth rate of fat-6;fat-7 double mutants treated with nhr-64RNAi and empty vector control (EV). The graph shows the percentage of animals that reached adult stage 72 h after plating synchronized L1 larvae onto RNAi plates seeded with E. coli strain HT115 carrying empty vector (EV) or nhr-64RNAi. The experiment was repeated twice, each time using 100-150 animals. Error bars show the range of the two experiments. (D) Inactivation of nhr-64 led to increased brood size in fat-6;fat-7 double mutants. The number of progeny produced by individual fat-6;fat-7 and wild-type animals treated with either empty vector (EV) or nhr-64RNAi was counted. Data shown are the average brood size of 10–15 individuals. Error bars are standard error.