Transcriptomic effect of extracellular protein aggregation regulators in C. elegans

In metazoans, the secreted proteome participates in intercellular signaling, innateimmunity and builds the extracellular matrix scaffold around cells. Compared to therelatively constant intracellular environment, conditions for proteins in the extracellularspace are harsher and low ATP concentrations preclude activity of the intracellularprotein-quality-control components. Until now, only a few bona fide extracellularchaperones and proteases have been shown to limit extracellular protein aggregation.Here, we performed a systematic analysis of the extracellular proteostasis network inCaenorhabditis elegans with an RNA interference screen targeting genes encoding thesecreted proteome. We discovered novel regulators of extracellular protein aggregation including several proteins related to innate immunity. This project investigates the transcriptomic response of C. elegans in response to overexpression of these regulators.