Drosophila miR-277 controls branched-chain amino acid catabolism and affects lifespan

Development, growth and adult survival are coordinated with available metabolic resources. The insulin/IGF and TOR signaling pathways relay nutritional status, thereby ascertaining that the organism responds appropriately to environmental conditions. MicroRNAs are short (21-23 nt) regulatory RNAs that confer specificity on the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) to inhibit a given set of mRNA targets. We profiled changes in miRNA expression during adult life in Drosophila melanogaster and determined that miR-277 is down-regulated with age. This miRNA controls branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism and the activity of the TOR kinase, a central growth regulator. Metabolite analysis suggests that the mechanistic basis may be an accumulation of BCKAs, rather than BCAAs, thus avoiding potentially detrimental consequences of increased branched chain amino acid levels on e.g. translational fidelity. Constitutive miR-277 expression as well as transgenic inhibition with a miRNA sponge construct shortens lifespan. Furthermore, constitutive miR-277 expression is synthetically lethal with reduced insulin signaling. Thus, optimal metabolic adaptation requires tuning of cellular BCAA catabolism by miR-277 to be concordant with systemic growth signaling. Overall design: Transgenic Drosophila melanogaster fruitflies carrying strong, ubiquitously expressed pre-miR277 hairpins (wt and two mutant versions) were dissected, total RNA was extracted from the abdomen and gel-purified for size selection (~18-30 nt). Digested plasmid samples were compared to those of circular plasmids and a nontransfected control. The purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate the extent of expression from mutant pre-miR277 hairpins, mut1 should abolish Drosha-processing while mut2 is conservative.

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Esslinger SM, Schwalb B, Helfer S, Michalik KM, Witte H, Maier KC, Martin D, Michalke B, Tresch A, Cramer P, Förstemann K