DSSS - Sulfation: A Worms’ perspective on mechanism and biological activity

Sulfation is a ubiquitous biochemical reaction that regulates various cellular and biological processes in organisms. From bacteria to plants and animals, perturbation of the molecular processes that regulate the biologic ratio of sulfated and unconjugated substrates is likely to alter cellular and organismal physiology. This talk will highlight our efforts to investigate the poorly understood role of sulfation pathways in nematodes, one of the largest animal phyla found in all ecosystems. Recent work in the model organisms Pristionchus pacificus and Caenorhabditis elegans indicates that sulfation controls worm development, neuronal organization, phenotypic traits and behavior; however, our understanding of the underlying mechanisms is limited. I will describe our approaches to study the spatial expression, activity and regulation of the enzymes which can add (sulfotransferases) or remove (sulfatases) a sulfonate group from a large variety of biomolecules and xenobiotic compounds, and how we use nematodes to uncover the roles that sulfation plays in organismal development.