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Updated: Dec 1, 2025
Tracing Gene Expression Through Detection of β-galactosidase Activity in Whole Mouse Embryos
Published on: June 26, 2018
Expression of β-1,4-galactosyltransferases during Aging in Caenorhabditis elegans
Jennifer Kremer1, Cornelia Brendel1, Elisabeth Karin Maria Mack2
1Department of Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Philipps-University Marburg, and University Hospital Gießen and Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
Background:
Altered plasma activity of β-1,4-galac-tosyl-transferases (B4GALTs) is a novel candidate biomarker of human aging. B4GALT1 is assumed to be largely responsible for this activity increase, but how it modulates the aging process is unclear at present.
Objectives:
To determine how expression of B4GALT1 and other B4GALT enzymes changes during aging of an experimentally tractable model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans.
Methods:
Targeted analysis of mRNA levels of all 3 C. elegans B4GALT family members was performed by qPCR in wild-type and in long-lived daf-2 (insulin/IGF1-like receptor)-deficient or germline-deficient animals.
Results:
bre-4 (B4GALT1/2/3/4) is the only B4GALT whose expression increases during aging in wild-type worms. In addition, bre-4 levels also rise during aging in long-lived daf-2-deficient worms, but not in animals that are long-lived due to the lack of germline stem cells. On the other hand, expression of sqv-3 (B4GALT7) and of W02B12.11 (B4GALT5/6) appears decreased or constant, respectively, in all backgrounds during aging.
Conclusions:
The age-dependent bre-4 mRNA increase in C. elegans parallels the age-dependent B4GALT activity increase in humans and is consistent with C. elegans being a suitable experimental organism to define potentially conserved roles of B4GALT1 during aging.
