| Talk title | Lipid droplets and fat accumulation in Caenorhabditis elegans |
| Speaker | Prof. Bin LIANG Professor, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Date & Time | 24 July 2017 (Monday) 14:30-15:30 |
| Venue | Room G004, E12 Building (University of Macau) |
| Abstract | Lipid droplets (LDs) are intracellular organelles that dynamically regulates fat accumulation in responsive to energy require or surplus. Recent studies have showed that LD might also be involved in seemingly unrelated activities, including signaling, temporal protein storage, protein degradation, and so on. In the past several years, my lab has been working on the biology of lipid droplets, especially the regulation of lipid droplet expansion and fat accumulation in the model organism C. elegans. We have systemically showed that the transcription factor sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP) and its main target stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) play critical roles in the biosynthesis of lipids and fat accumulation. Specifically, our newly published paper in the Journal of Lipid Research showed that zinc mediates the SREBP-SCD axis to regulate lipid metabolism in C. elegans. Meanwhile, we found that intracellular stress such as mitochondria stress, integrated into nucleolus stress to upregulate lipogenesis and lipid accumulation through an uncharacterized transcription factor FOXA/PHA in C. elegans. Collectively, these researches in my lab are to seek for new molecules or signaling pathways that may involve in regulating of lipid droplet growth and accumulation, providing new insights into the pathogenesis of lipid related diseases. |
