Volume 18, Issue 3 e12849
ORIGINAL PAPER
Open Access

JNK modifies neuronal metabolism to promote proteostasis and longevity

Lifen Wang

Lifen Wang

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, California

Search for more papers by this author
Sonnet S. Davis

Sonnet S. Davis

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Search for more papers by this author
Martin Borch Jensen

Martin Borch Jensen

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Search for more papers by this author
Imilce A. Rodriguez-Fernandez

Imilce A. Rodriguez-Fernandez

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Search for more papers by this author
Cagsar Apaydin

Cagsar Apaydin

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Search for more papers by this author
Gabor Juhasz

Gabor Juhasz

Department of Anatomy, Cell and Developmental Biology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary

Institute of Genetics, Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary

Search for more papers by this author
Bradford W. Gibson

Bradford W. Gibson

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Search for more papers by this author
Birgit Schilling

Birgit Schilling

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Search for more papers by this author
Arvind Ramanathan

Arvind Ramanathan

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Search for more papers by this author
Sina Ghaemmaghami

Sina Ghaemmaghami

Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

Search for more papers by this author
Heinrich Jasper

Corresponding Author

Heinrich Jasper

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, California

Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, California

Correspondence

Heinrich Jasper, The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA.

Email: [email protected]

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 27 February 2019
Citations: 19

Abstract

Aging is associated with a progressive loss of tissue and metabolic homeostasis. This loss can be delayed by single-gene perturbations, increasing lifespan. How such perturbations affect metabolic and proteostatic networks to extend lifespan remains unclear. Here, we address this question by comprehensively characterizing age-related changes in protein turnover rates in the Drosophila brain, as well as changes in the neuronal metabolome, transcriptome, and carbon flux in long-lived animals with elevated Jun-N-terminal Kinase signaling. We find that these animals exhibit a delayed age-related decline in protein turnover rates, as well as decreased steady-state neuronal glucose-6-phosphate levels and elevated carbon flux into the pentose phosphate pathway due to the induction of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). Over-expressing G6PD in neurons is sufficient to phenocopy these metabolic and proteostatic changes, as well as extend lifespan. Our study identifies a link between metabolic changes and improved proteostasis in neurons that contributes to the lifespan extension in long-lived mutants.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The authors declare no competing interests.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.