Caenorhabditis elegans in microgravity: An omics perspective

Amanda Scott; Craig R G Willis; Masafumi Muratani; Atsushi Higashitani; Timothy Etheridge; Nathaniel J Szewczyk; Colleen S Deane

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107189

Caenorhabditis elegans in microgravity: An omics perspective

iScience. 2023 Jun 20;26(7):107189. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107189. eCollection 2023 Jul 21.

Authors

Amanda Scott¹, Craig R G Willis², Masafumi Muratani³, Atsushi Higashitani⁴, Timothy Etheridge⁵, Nathaniel J Szewczyk^{1

6}, Colleen S Deane^{5

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.
² School of Chemistry and Biosciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK.
³ Transborder Medical Research Center and Department of Genome Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan.
⁴ Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
⁵ Department of Sport and Health Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
⁶ Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.
⁷ Human Development & Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK.

Abstract

The application of omics to study Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) in the context of spaceflight is increasing, illuminating the wide-ranging biological impacts of spaceflight on physiology. In this review, we highlight the application of omics, including transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics, multi-omics, and integrated omics in the study of spaceflown C. elegans, and discuss the impact, use, and future direction of this branch of research. We highlight the variety of molecular alterations that occur in response to spaceflight, most notably changes in metabolic and neuromuscular gene regulation. These transcriptional features are reproducible and evident across many spaceflown species (e.g., mice and astronauts), supporting the use of C. elegans as a model organism to study spaceflight physiology with translational capital. Integrating tissue-specific, spatial, and multi-omics approaches, which quantitatively link molecular responses to phenotypic adaptations, will facilitate the identification of candidate regulatory molecules for therapeutic intervention and thus represents the next frontiers in C. elegans space omics research.

Keywords: Model organism; Omics; Space sciences.

Publication types

Review