Expression data from C. elegans in the presence or absence of copper sulfate

MAP kinases are integral to the mechanisms by which cells respond to a wide variety of environmental stresses. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the KGB-1 JNK signaling pathway regulates the response to heavy metal stress. The deletion mutants of this cascade show hypersensitivity to heavy metals like copper or cadmium. However, factors that function downstream of KGB-1 pathway are not well characterized. To understand how the KGB-1 pathway modulates gene activity and to define the physiological processes in which the heavy metal stress response may be involved, we used microarray to examine gene expression changes in wild-type and kgb-1 mutant animals subjected to heavy metal stress. Adult worms of WT or kgb-1 mutant were incubated with H2O or 1 mM copper sulfate for 1 hour. Total RNA was then prepared using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen), followed by DNase I treatment, phenol/chloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation. (WT_Cu-), (WT_Cu+), (kgb-1_Cu-) and (kgb-1_Cu+) RNAs extraction were hybridized on Affymetrix microarrays.