A C9orf72-CARM1 axis regulates lipid metabolism under glucose starvation-induced nutrient stress.

Cells undergo metabolic adaptation during environmental changes by using evolutionarily conserved stress response programs. This metabolic homeostasis is exquisitely regulated, and its imbalance could underlie human pathological conditions. We report here that C9orf72, which is linked to the most common forms of the neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), is a key regulator of lipid metabolism under stress. Loss of C9orf72 leads to an overactivation of starvation-induced lipid metabolism that is mediated by dysregulated autophagic digestion of lipids and increased de novo fatty acid synthesis. C9orf72 acts by promoting the lysosomal degradation of coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1), which in turn regulates autophagy-lysosomal functions and lipid metabolism. In ALS/FTD patient-derived neurons or tissues, a reduction in C9orf72 function is associated with dysregulation in the levels of CARM1, fatty acids, and NADPH oxidase NOX2. These results reveal a C9orf72-CARM1 axis in the control of stress-induced lipid metabolism and implicates epigenetic dysregulation in relevant human diseases.

Publisher Correction: L3MBTL1 regulates ALS/FTD-associated proteotoxicity and quality control.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

L3MBTL1 regulates ALS/FTD-associated proteotoxicity and quality control.

Misfolded protein toxicity and failure of protein quality control underlie neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Here, we identified Lethal(3)malignant brain tumor-like protein 1 (L3MBTL1) as a key regulator of protein quality control, the loss of which protected against the proteotoxicity of mutant Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase or C9orf72 dipeptide repeat proteins. L3MBTL1 acts by regulating p53-dependent quality control systems that degrade misfolded proteins. SET domain-containing protein 8, an L3MBTL1-associated p53-binding protein, also regulated clearance of misfolded proteins and was increased by proteotoxicity-associated stresses in mammalian cells. Both L3MBTL1 and SET domain-containing protein 8 were upregulated in the central nervous systems of mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and human patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/frontotemporal dementia. The role of L3MBTL1 in protein quality control is conserved from Caenorhabditis elegans to mammalian neurons. These results reveal a protein quality-control pathway that operates in both normal stress response and proteotoxicity-associated neurodegenerative diseases.

Shared Enhancer Activity in the Limbs and Phallus and Functional Divergence of a Limb-Genital cis-Regulatory Element in Snakes.

The amniote phallus and limbs differ dramatically in their morphologies but share patterns of signaling and gene expression in early development. Thus far, the extent to which genital and limb transcriptional networks also share cis-regulatory elements has remained unexplored. We show that many limb enhancers are retained in snake genomes, suggesting that these elements may function in non-limb tissues. Consistent with this, our analysis of cis-regulatory activity in mice and Anolis lizards reveals that patterns of enhancer activity in embryonic limbs and genitalia overlap heavily. In mice, deletion of HLEB, an enhancer of Tbx4, produces defects in hindlimbs and genitalia, establishing the importance of this limb-genital enhancer for development of these different appendages. Further analyses demonstrate that the HLEB of snakes has lost hindlimb enhancer function while retaining genital activity. Our findings identify roles for Tbx4 in genital development and highlight deep similarities in cis-regulatory activity between limbs and genitalia.