@article{14f469404a124c17ac6be5312e417d88,
title = "The marginal cells of the Caenorhabditis elegans pharynx scavenge cholesterol and other hydrophobic small molecules",
abstract = "The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a bacterivore filter feeder. Through the contraction of the worm{\textquoteright}s pharynx, a bacterial suspension is sucked into the pharynx{\textquoteright}s lumen. Excess liquid is then shunted out of the buccal cavity through ancillary channels made by surrounding marginal cells. We find that many worm-bioactive small molecules (a.k.a. wactives) accumulate inside of the marginal cells as crystals or globular spheres. Through screens for mutants that resist the lethality associated with one crystallizing wactive we identify a presumptive sphingomyelin-synthesis pathway that is necessary for crystal and sphere accumulation. We find that expression of sphingomyelin synthase 5 (SMS-5) in the marginal cells is not only sufficient for wactive accumulation but is also important for absorbing exogenous cholesterol, without which C. elegans cannot develop. We conclude that sphingomyelin-rich marginal cells act as a sink to scavenge important nutrients from filtered liquid that might otherwise be shunted back into the environment.",
author = "Muntasir Kamal and Houtan Moshiri and Lilia Magomedova and Duhyun Han and Nguyen, {Ken C.Q.} and May Yeo and Jessica Knox and Rachel Bagg and Won, {Amy M.} and Karolina Szlapa and Yip, {Christopher M.} and Cummins, {Carolyn L.} and Hall, {David H.} and Roy, {Peter J.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Greg Fairn and Masashi Maekawa for reagents and guidance in characterizing sphingomyelin abundance and localization in the worm; Hong Zheng for building the p1138 construct and Kevin Chan for microinjection and integration work; Don Moerman and Oliver Hobert for fosmids and fosmid recombineering tools; David Hall, Zeynep Altun, and Chris Crocker for permission to modify Worm Atlas schematics43; Andrew Burns for helpful comments on the work and mining Chembridge libraries; and Andy Fraser and Michael Schertzberg for whole-genome sequence analysis; Lindy Holden-Dye and Fernando Calahorro Nunez for preliminary analyses; and the C. elegans Genetics Centre and Shohei Mitani for mutant strains. This work was supported by CIHR grants (376634 and 313296) and a CRC to P.J.R., an NSERC (RGPIN 03666-14) to C.L.C., and an NIH grant (OD 010943) to D.H.H. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, The Author(s).",
year = "2019",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1038/s41467-019-11908-0",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "10",
journal = "Nature communications",
issn = "2041-1723",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "1",
}