The C. elegans intestine

Abstract

The intestine is one of the major organs in C. elegans and is largely responsible for food digestion and assimilation as well as the synthesis and storage of macromolecules. In addition, the intestine is emerging as a powerful experimental system in which to study such universal biological phenomena as vesicular trafficking, biochemical clocks, stress responses and aging. The present chapter describes some of these many and varied properties of the C. elegans intestine: the embryonic cell lineage, intestine morphogenesis, structure and physiology of the intestinal cell and, finally, the transcription factor network controlling intestine development and function.

Intermediate filaments in Caenorhabditis elegans

“…The C. elegans intestine is a ''simple'' epithelial tube consisting only of 20 polarized and tightly-associated cells which are, however, subject to multiple patterning and morphogenetic events [McGhee, 2007;McGhee et al, 2009]. We will show that intestinal morphogenesis and function can serve as examples of the interplay between IFs and other cytoskeletal filaments and their integration into a transcellular network by adherens-type cell-cell junctions.…”

“…It is the middle part of the gut that in vertebrates also includes pharynx/foregut [Portereiko and Mango, 2001] and rectum/hindgut. The intestine is not only responsible for assimilation and digestion of food but also for synthesis and storage of macromolecules such as yolk proteins [McGhee, 2007]. A single cell, the E-blastomere of the eight-cell embryo, gives rise to the entire intestine [Deppe et al, 1978;Sulston et al, 1983;Leung et al, 1999].…”

“…Given the small size and the simple architecture, the C. elegans intestine provides an excellent system to study the contribution of the cytoskeleton to intracellular polarization, establishment of intercellular junctions, and lumen formation [Leung et al, 1999;McGhee, 2007]. Intestinal E-cells undergo a mesenchymal-epithelial-like transition, termed cytoplasmic polarization [Leung et al, 1999].…”

Caveolin-2 Is Required for Apical Lipid Trafficking and Suppresses Basolateral Recycling Defects in the Intestine ofCaenorhabditis elegans

“…The intestine of C. elegans performs a range of important functions including the following: the uptake and transport of nutrients, the production and export of egg yolk proteins, and the encoding of an ultradian oscillator controlling the defecation cycle (Kimble and Sharrock, 1983;Dal Santo et al, 1999;McGhee, 2007). To analyze the function of cav-2 in the intestine, we used cav-2 RNAi and two strains carrying putative null mutations of the cav-2 gene: HB508, cav-2(tm394), and BA1090, cav-2(hc191).…”

“…The intestine of C. elegans consists of a single layer of 20 polarized epithelial cells arranged as a tube. The apical surface of the cell is shaped into microvilli and forms the barrier with the lumen of the gut, whereas the basolateral surface is in contact with the pseudocoelomic space (body cavity; McGhee, 2007). Recent work using genetic and in vivo approaches has led to the development of the C. elegans intestine as a system for the study of trafficking (Fares and Grant, 2002;Grant and Sato, 2006).…”