Effects of ccf-1 RNAi on C. elegans response to cadmium and acrylamide

In a genome-wide RNAi screen to identify activators of numr-1, a cadmium responsive gene involved in RNA splicing regulation, we isolated ccf-1 as a gene that is required for cadmium-induced numr-1 activation. The ccf-1 gene encodes a deadenylase within the CCR4-NOT complex that generally serves to suppress gene expression by initiating mRNA degradation. However, a role for ccf-1 as a positive regulator of stress-induced gene expression remains to be characterized. Silencing of ccf-1 inhibits various classes of cadmium-inducible genes including several glutathione-s-transferase (gst) and heat shock protein genes. RNAi knockdown of ccf-1 significantly reduces lifespan and decreases survival in cadmium, implicating a role for ccf-1 in aging and stress protection. The ccf-1 gene is also required for resistance against acrylamide with RNAi depletion of ccf-1 inhibiting acrylamide-induced gst induction, decreasing survival in acrylamide stress, and increasing C. elegans sensitivity to acrylamide-induced neurodegeneration. Using RNA-sequencing, we observed that ccf-1 regulates ~28-35% of all genes induced by cadmium (500 out of 1802 DEG) or acrylamide (296 out of 851 DEG) by >2-fold. Clustering analysis of ccf-1 dependent cadmium or acrylamide up-regulated genes indicate significant enrichment to glutathione and cytochrome P450 metabolism, suggesting a central role for ccf-1 in regulating antioxidant defense across different stressors. Using a CCF-1::GFP translational reporter, we find that CCF-1 is broadly expressed in the intestine, muscle, and hypodemis. Interestingly, CCF-1::GFP strongly localizes to the intestinal nuclei, implicating a potential nuclear role for CCF-1 in transcriptional regulation that is distinct for its deadenylase function in the cytoplasm Overall design: Total RNA was prepared from gravid young adult Caenorhabditis elegans with three biological replicates per group and sent to NovoGene for PE150 sequencing. Sequencing library were constructured with oligo-dT enrichment. Gene expression data were analyzed by DEGSeq.