Auxin confers protection against ER stress in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Biol Open, 10(2).
Auxins are plant growth regulators that influence most aspects of plant developmentthrough complex mechanisms. The development of an auxin-inducible degradation (AID)system has enabled rapid, conditional protein depletion in yeast and cultured cells.More recently, the system was successfully adapted to C aenorhabditis elegans toachieve auxin-dependent degradation of targets in all tissues and developmentalstages. Whether auxin treatment alone has an impact on nematode physiology is anopen question. Here we show that indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), the auxin most commonlyused to trigger AID in worms, functions through the conserved IRE-1/XBP-1 branch ofthe Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) to promote resistance to endoplasmic reticulum(ER) stress. Because the UPR not only plays a central role in restoring ERhomeostasis, but also promotes lipid biosynthesis and regulates lifespan, we suggestthat extreme caution should be exercised when using the AID system to study theseand related processes.
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