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Updated: Aug 10, 2025
Novel Assay for Cold Nociception in Drosophila Larvae
Published on: April 3, 2017
A ZTF-7/RPS-2 complex mediates the cold-warm response in C. elegans
Ting Xu1, Shimiao Liao1, Meng Huang1
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, The USTC RNA Institute, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles & Cellular Dynamics, School of Life Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Biomedical Sciences and Health Laboratory of Anhui Province, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Transient cold-warm exposure causes the RNA exosome complex to move within the cell. The protein ZTF-7 is crucial for this response in C. elegans, involving ribosomal proteins.
Area of Science:
- Cell Biology
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
Background:
- Temperature significantly impacts biological processes in all organisms.
- Understanding how multicellular organisms respond to hypothermic stress is crucial.
- The role of the RNA exosome complex in temperature stress response is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mechanism by which C. elegans responds to cold-warm stimuli.
- To identify key factors involved in the nucleolar-nucleoplasmic redistribution of the RNA exosome complex.
- To elucidate the function of ZTF-7 in temperature stress response.
Main Methods:
- Forward genetic screening in C. elegans to identify genes involved in the response.
- Analysis of RNA exosome complex localization using microscopy.
- Immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry (IP-MS) to identify protein interactions.
- Genetic manipulation to assess the function of identified proteins.
Main Results:
- Cold-warm stimuli induced the depletion of the RNA exosome complex from nucleoli and its enrichment in the nucleoplasm.
- ZTF-7 was identified as essential for the cold-warm stimuli-induced depletion of the RNA exosome from nucleoli.
- ZTF-7 interacts with RPS-2, a ribosomal protein involved in pre-rRNA processing.
- Depletion of RPS-2 and other small ribosomal subunit proteins inhibited the reduction of exosome subunits from nucleoli.
Conclusions:
- A novel mechanism for responding to environmental cold-warm exposure in C. elegans has been established.
- ZTF-7 plays a critical role in regulating RNA exosome localization during temperature stress.
- The small ribosomal subunit is implicated in the cellular response to cold-warm stimuli.
