Glucose Transporters in Worms

Model Organism: Worms Scientific Discussion
1

Hi All,

I have a naive question - what are the glucose transporters in C. elegans? I have been searching the literature and cannot seem to find a GLUT4
or GLUT1-like gene in worms!? Glucose obviously gets into the cell, but how, and into which cell types? In mammals, insulin binds the insulin
singnaling receptor, which leads to a series of phosphorylation events of downstream targets, and eventually phosphorylation by AKT-1 causes
GLUT4 storage vesicles to fuse the cellular membrane and embed the GLUT4 transporter to allow glucose to enter the cell. What is the equivalent
mechanism in C. elegans? Are there storage vesicles in worms which carry glucose transporter proteins that are also activated by AKT?
All I have been able to find on Wormbook, and journal articles, relates to glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, or insulin signaling
and lifespan, but not to how glucose actually gets into the cell. Any papers/references would be greatly appreciated!

2

Hi,

have you already read through this?

http://opus.bath.ac.uk/25409/

or perhaps contact Shun Kitaoka, a PhD student in the Zhao lab at Vermont who is looking at glucose transporters in worms;

http://asci.uvm.edu/?Page=faculty/grad_stud.html

Steve

3

Great finds, thank you! It looks like this is actually an underinvestigated area within insulin signaling, but I was able to find many of the answers to my
questions by reading the thesis you cited above.