Expression profiles in Caenorhabditis elegans mutants lacking an intestinally expressed microRNA mir-60 that promote adaptive response against chronic oxidative stress

Recent revelations into microRNA function suggest that microRNAs serve as a key player in a robust adaptive response against stress in animals through their fine-tuning capability in gene expression. However, it remains largely unclear how a microRNA-modulated downstream mechanism contributes to the process of homeostatic adaptation. Here we show that loss of an intestinally expressed microRNA gene mir-60 in the nematode C. elegans promotes adaptive response against oxidative stress; animals lacking mir-60 dramatically extend lifespan under a mild and long-term oxidative stress condition, while they do not increase resistance against a strong and transient oxidative stress exposure. We found that canonical stress responsive factors, such as DAF-16/FOXO, are dispensable for mir-60 loss to enhance oxidative stress resistance. Gene expression profiles revealed that genes encoding lysosomal proteases and those involved in the xenobiotic metabolism and pathogen defense response are up-regulated by the mir-60 loss. Detailed genetic studies and computational microRNA target prediction suggest that endocytosis components and a bZip transcription factor gene zip-10, which functions in innate immune response, are directly modulated by miR-60 in the intestine. Our findings suggest that the mir-60 loss facilitates adaptive response against chronic oxidative stress by ensuring the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. To identify genes that respond to the mir-60 loss, RNA expression profiles were examined between the mir-60 loss mutant (mir-60(n4947)) and its control animals using the high-throughput sequencing technology. In this study, we used spe-9(hc88), a temperature-sensitive sterile strain, which has been shown in previous studies to have a lifespan similar to wild-type and widely used in gene expression studies to reduce the effect of RNA contamination from younger progenies. Both spe-9 single and mir-60;spe-9 double mutant animals were cultured at a restrictive temperature 23.5 °C, and treated with paraquat 5 mM during adulthood for chronic oxidative stress. Total RNAs were purified at the following time points: Day 0 young adult for both spe-9 and mir-60;spe-9 (just before paraquat exposure); Day 7 for both spe-9 and mir-60;spe-9 (50% survival time for spe-9); Day 10 for mir-60;spe-9 (50% survival time for mir-60;spe-9). For Day 0 controls, total RNAs were isolated twice independently for biological replicates. cDNA libraries were made for these 7 samples with indexed adapters using TruSeq Stranded mRNA Sample Prep Kit (Illumina), and sequenced on 2 lanes of flow cells on the HiSeq 2000/2500 platform, eventually providing 14 sequencing samples.