1
|
Tan J, Virtue S, Norris DM, Conway OJ, Yang M, Bidault G, Gribben C, Lugtu F, Kamzolas I, Krycer JR, Mills RJ, Liang L, Pereira C, Dale M, Shun-Shion AS, Baird HJ, Horscroft JA, Sowton AP, Ma M, Carobbio S, Petsalaki E, Murray AJ, Gershlick DC, Nathan JA, Hudson JE, Vallier L, Fisher-Wellman KH, Frezza C, Vidal-Puig A, Fazakerley DJ. Limited oxygen in standard cell culture alters metabolism and function of differentiated cells. EMBO J 2024:10.1038/s44318-024-00084-7. [PMID: 38580776 DOI: 10.1038/s44318-024-00084-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2024] [Revised: 02/20/2024] [Accepted: 03/03/2024] [Indexed: 04/07/2024] Open
Abstract
The in vitro oxygen microenvironment profoundly affects the capacity of cell cultures to model physiological and pathophysiological states. Cell culture is often considered to be hyperoxic, but pericellular oxygen levels, which are affected by oxygen diffusivity and consumption, are rarely reported. Here, we provide evidence that several cell types in culture actually experience local hypoxia, with important implications for cell metabolism and function. We focused initially on adipocytes, as adipose tissue hypoxia is frequently observed in obesity and precedes diminished adipocyte function. Under standard conditions, cultured adipocytes are highly glycolytic and exhibit a transcriptional profile indicative of physiological hypoxia. Increasing pericellular oxygen diverted glucose flux toward mitochondria, lowered HIF1α activity, and resulted in widespread transcriptional rewiring. Functionally, adipocytes increased adipokine secretion and sensitivity to insulin and lipolytic stimuli, recapitulating a healthier adipocyte model. The functional benefits of increasing pericellular oxygen were also observed in macrophages, hPSC-derived hepatocytes and cardiac organoids. Our findings demonstrate that oxygen is limiting in many terminally-differentiated cell types, and that considering pericellular oxygen improves the quality, reproducibility and translatability of culture models.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joycelyn Tan
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Sam Virtue
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK.
| | - Dougall M Norris
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Olivia J Conway
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Ming Yang
- MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0XZ, UK
- CECAD Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, 50931, Germany
| | - Guillaume Bidault
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Christopher Gribben
- Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK
| | - Fatima Lugtu
- Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK
| | - Ioannis Kamzolas
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK
| | - James R Krycer
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, 4006, Australia
- Faculty of Health, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, 4000, Australia
| | - Richard J Mills
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, 4006, Australia
- Faculty of Health, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, 4000, Australia
| | - Lu Liang
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Conceição Pereira
- Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0XY, UK
| | - Martin Dale
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Amber S Shun-Shion
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Harry Jm Baird
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - James A Horscroft
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EL, UK
| | - Alice P Sowton
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EL, UK
| | - Marcella Ma
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
| | - Stefania Carobbio
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
- Centro de Investigacion Principe Felipe, Valencia, 46012, Spain
| | - Evangelia Petsalaki
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK
| | - Andrew J Murray
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EL, UK
| | - David C Gershlick
- Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0XY, UK
| | - James A Nathan
- Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID), Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK
| | - James E Hudson
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, 4006, Australia
- Faculty of Health, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, 4000, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Ludovic Vallier
- Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0AW, UK
| | - Kelsey H Fisher-Wellman
- Department of Physiology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, 27834, USA
- East Carolina Diabetes and Obesity Institute, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, 27834, USA
- UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Christian Frezza
- MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0XZ, UK
- CECAD Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, 50931, Germany
| | - Antonio Vidal-Puig
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK.
- Centro de Investigacion Principe Felipe, Valencia, 46012, Spain.
| | - Daniel J Fazakerley
- Metabolic Research Laboratories, Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Lo TL, Wang Q, Nickson J, van Denderen BJW, Deveson Lucas D, Chai HX, Knott GJ, Weerasinghe H, Traven A. The C-terminal protein interaction domain of the chromatin reader Yaf9 is critical for pathogenesis of Candida albicans. mSphere 2024; 9:e0069623. [PMID: 38376217 DOI: 10.1128/msphere.00696-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Fungal infections cause a large health burden but are treated by only a handful of antifungal drug classes. Chromatin factors have emerged as possible targets for new antifungals. These targets include the reader proteins, which interact with posttranslationally modified histones to influence DNA transcription and repair. The YEATS domain is one such reader recognizing both crotonylated and acetylated histones. Here, we performed a detailed structure/function analysis of the Candida albicans YEATS domain reader Yaf9, a subunit of the NuA4 histone acetyltransferase and the SWR1 chromatin remodeling complex. We have previously demonstrated that the homozygous deletion mutant yaf9Δ/Δ displays growth defects and is avirulent in mice. Here we show that a YEATS domain mutant expected to inactivate Yaf9's chromatin binding does not display strong phenotypes in vitro, nor during infection of immune cells or in a mouse systemic infection model, with only a minor virulence reduction in vivo. In contrast to the YEATS domain mutation, deletion of the C-terminal domain of Yaf9, a protein-protein interaction module necessary for its interactions with SWR1 and NuA4, phenocopies the null mutant. This shows that the C-terminal domain is essential for Yaf9 roles in vitro and in vivo, including C. albicans virulence. Our study informs on the strategies for therapeutic targeting of Yaf9, showing that approaches taken for the mammalian YEATS domains by disrupting their chromatin binding might not be effective in C. albicans, and provides a foundation for studying YEATS proteins in human fungal pathogens.IMPORTANCEThe scarcity of available antifungal drugs and rising resistance demand the development of therapies with new modes of action. In this context, chromatin regulation may be a target for novel antifungal therapeutics. To realize this potential, we must better understand the roles of chromatin regulators in fungal pathogens. Toward this goal, here, we studied the YEATS domain chromatin reader Yaf9 in Candida albicans. Yaf9 uses the YEATS domain for chromatin binding and a C-terminal domain to interact with chromatin remodeling complexes. By constructing mutants in these domains and characterizing their phenotypes, our data indicate that the Yaf9 YEATS domain might not be a suitable therapeutic drug target. Instead, the Yaf9 C-terminal domain is critical for C. albicans virulence. Collectively, our study informs how a class of chromatin regulators performs their cellular and pathogenesis roles in C. albicans and reveals strategies to inhibit them.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tricia L Lo
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
- Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Qi Wang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Joshua Nickson
- Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Bryce J W van Denderen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
- Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | | | - Her Xiang Chai
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Gavin J Knott
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Harshini Weerasinghe
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
- Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Ana Traven
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
- Centre to Impact AMR, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| |
Collapse
|