The Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of human mitochondrial pyrimidine nucleotide transporter regulates glucose transport.

Caenorhabditis elegans T09F3.2 is a homolog of the human mitochondrial pyrimidine nucleotide transporter. We isolated a T09F3.2 mutant (TOG2) with a 0.7 kb deletion in T09F3.2, which exhibited low growth and movement. TOG2 worms exhibited high glucose content and low lipid content in intestinal cells and oocytes, suggesting glucose leakage from these cells. The glucose transport inhibitor phloretin improved the growth of TOG2 worms, suggesting that T09F3.2 regulates the phloretin-sensitive glucose transporter FGT-1. The localization of T09F3.2 was examined to assess the regulation of FGT-1 by T09F3.2. Distinct expression of T09F3.2 fused with DsRed-Monomer (T09F3.2:DsRed-Monomer) was observed in the basal domain of intestinal cells and was weakly expressed in many cells. Colocalization of FGT-1 and T09F3.2 was observed in the intestinal cell surface and body wall muscle. This colocalization supports the regulation of FGT-1 by T09F3.2. These results reveal new aspects of glucose transporter regulation.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.
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