A fluorescent reporter for rapid assessment of autophagic flux reveals unique autophagy signatures during C. elegans post-embryonic development and identifies compounds that modulate autophagy.

Autophagy is important for many physiological processes; and disordered autophagy can contribute to the pathogenesis of a broad range of systemic disorders. C. elegans is a useful model organism for studying the genetics of autophagy, however, current methods for studying autophagy are labor-intensive and not readily amenable to high-throughput procedures. Here we describe a fluorescent reporter, GFP::LGG-1::mKate2, which is useful for monitoring autophagic flux in live animals. In the intestine, the fusion protein is processed by endogenous ATG-4 to generate GFP::LGG-1 and mKate2 proteins. We provide data indicating that the GFP:mKate ratio is a suitable readout for measuring cellular autophagic flux. Using this reporter, we measured autophagic flux in L1 larvae to day 7 adult animals. We show that basal autophagic flux is relatively low during larval development but increases markedly in reproductive adults before decreasing with age. Furthermore, we show that wild-type, eat-2, and daf-2 mutant animals have distinct autophagic flux profiles through post-embryonic development. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of this reporter by performing a high-content small molecule screen to identify compounds that alter autophagic flux in C. elegans.

Functional analysis of a novel de novo variant in PPP5C associated with microcephaly, seizures, and developmental delay.

We describe a proband evaluated through the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) who presented with microcephaly, developmental delay, and refractory epilepsy with a de novo p.Ala47Thr missense variant in the protein phosphatase gene, PPP5C. This gene has not previously been associated with a Mendelian disease, and based on the population database, gnomAD, the gene has a low tolerance for loss-of-function variants (pLI = 1, o/e = 0.07). We functionally evaluated the PPP5C variant in C. elegans by knocking the variant into the orthologous gene, pph-5, at the corresponding residue, Ala48Thr. We employed assays in three different biological processes where pph-5 was known to function through opposing the activity of genes, mec-15 and sep-1. We demonstrated that, in contrast to control animals, the pph-5 Ala48Thr variant suppresses the neurite growth phenotype and the GABA signaling defects of mec-15 mutants, and the embryonic lethality of sep-1 mutants. The Ala48Thr variant did not display dominance and behaved similarly to the reference pph-5 null, indicating that the variant is likely a strong hypomorph or complete loss-of-function. We conclude that pph-5 Ala48Thr is damaging in C. elegans. By extension in the proband, PPP5C p.Ala47Thr is likely damaging, the de novo dominant presentation is consistent with haplo-insufficiency, and the PPP5C variant is likely responsible for one or more of the proband's phenotypes.

A motor independent requirement for dynein light chain in Caenorhabditis elegans meiotic synapsis.

The dynein motor complex is thought to aid in homolog pairing in many organisms by moving chromosomes within the nuclear periphery to promote and test homologous interactions. This precedes synaptonemal complex (SC) formation during homolog synapsis, which stabilizes homolog proximity during recombination. We observed that depletion of the dynein light chain (DLC-1) in Caenorhabditis elegans irreversibly prevents synapsis, causing an increase in off-chromatin formation of SC protein foci with increasing temperature. This requirement for DLC-1 is independent of its function in dynein motors, as SYP protein foci do not form with depletion of other dynein motor components. In contrast to normal SC-related structures, foci formed with DLC-1 depletion are resistant to dissolution with 1,6-hexanediol, similar to aggregates of SC proteins formed in high growth temperatures. Dynein light chains have been shown to act as hub proteins that interact with other proteins through a conserved binding motif. We identified a similar DLC-1 binding motif in the C. elegans SC protein SYP-2, and mutation of the putative motif causes meiosis defects that are exacerbated by elevated temperatures. We propose that DLC-1 acts as a pre-synapsis chaperone-like factor for SYP proteins to help regulate their self-association prior to the signals for SC assembly, a role that is revealed by its increased essentiality at elevated temperatures.