Regulation of glucose transport by insulin/IGF‐like signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans (576.6)

Caenorhabditis elegans ( C. elegans ) has well conserved insulin/IGF‐like signaling (IIS). In our previous study, we have identified FGT‐1 as the only mammalian facilitative glucose transporter (GLUT) homologue in C. elegans which shows the transport activity to glucose in Xenopus oocytes (Kitaoka et al. PLoS ONE 2013, 8: e68475). To explore C. elegans as a model organism to study the regulation mechanism of glucose transport by IIS, we have studied the regulation of FGT‐1 by IIS in C. elegans . The growth of fgt‐1 mutants or fgt‐1;daf‐2 (mammalian insulin receptor homologue) double mutants showed no difference from the wild‐type (wt) animals or daf‐2 mutants, respectively, in normal medium or in the medium supplemented with 5 mM glucose. Similarly, the lifespan of fgt‐1 mutants had no difference from the wt animals in normal medium or in the glucose‐supplemented medium. However, the rate of development and the lifespan were significantly lower in wt animals than in fgt‐1 mutants when cultured in the medium supplemented with 5 mM 2‐deoxy‐D‐glucose (2‐DG), and the protective effect of fgt‐1 mutants on 2‐DG was lost in daf‐2 background. These data indicate that FGT‐1 is involved in glucose uptake in C. elegans , and although the FGT‐1 function did not appear to beregulated by IIS, glucose metabolism may be regulated by IIS in C. elegans .