记者3月15日从中科院昆明动物研究所获悉，该所梁斌课题组的博士张玉茹等研究人员，构建了第一个秀丽线虫脂代谢基因数据库，绘制了第一张秀丽线虫脂代谢途径网络图。该研究成果日前在线发表于《英国医学委员会—基因组学》（BMC Genomics）。
据悉，动物模型对研究脂代谢调控和代谢性疾病是必不可少的。在过去的10多年中，由于生活周期短、低成本、易培养和易操作等优点，秀丽线虫成为一个研究脂代谢调控、肥胖和肥胖相关代谢性疾病发病机理的良好模式动物。
然而，至今尚不清楚，秀丽线虫基因组中有多少编码脂代谢酶的基因和其参与的代谢途径以及它们在果蝇、小鼠、大鼠和人中的保守性等。
张玉茹等通过研究秀丽线虫基因组，发现在秀丽线虫21000个左右的基因中，至少有471个基因是编码脂代谢酶的基因，参与16条不同脂类的代谢途径。同时，通过比较基因组学方法，他们进一步从人、小鼠、大鼠和果蝇基因组中分别发掘到581、585、563和428个脂代谢基因。
业内专家表示，该研究第一次从基因组的角度分析了秀丽线虫脂代谢基因和代谢途径，为该领域未来的研究提供了大量资源，并进一步支持秀丽线虫是研究脂代谢和代谢性疾病的良好动物模型。(生物谷Bioon.com)
DOI： 10.1186/1471-2164-14-164
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Comparative genomics and functional study of lipid metabolic genes in Caenorhabditis elegans
Yuru Zhang, Xiaoju Zou, Yihong Ding, Haizhen Wang, Xiaoyun Wu and Bin Liang
Animal models are indispensable to understand the lipid metabolism and lipid metabolicdiseases. Over the last decade, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has become a popularanimal model for exploring the regulation of lipid metabolism, obesity, and obese-relateddiseases. However, the genomic and functional conservation of lipid metabolism fromC. elegans to humans remains unknown. In the present study, we systematically analyzedgenes involved in lipid metabolism in the C. elegans genome using comparative genomics. Results We built a database containing 471 lipid genes from the C. elegans genome, and thenassigned most of lipid genes into 16 different lipid metabolic pathways that wereintegrated into a network. Over 70% of C. elegans lipid genes have human orthologs,with 237 of 471 C. elegans lipid genes being conserved in humans, mice, rats, andDrosophila, of which 71 genes are specifically related to human metabolic diseases.Moreover, RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) was used to disrupt the expression of 356of 471 lipid genes with available RNAi clones. We found that 21 genes strongly affectfat storage, development, reproduction, and other visible phenotypes, 6 of which havenot previously been implicated in the regulation of fat metabolism and other phenotypes. Conclusion sThis study provides the first systematic genomic insight into lipid metabolism inC. elegans, supporting the use of C. elegans as an increasingly prominent model inthe study of metabolic diseases.
