Congrats to the newest LSU alumni!
@lsuscience.bsky.social
Graduate student Cristian Ricaurte-Perez, followed up on this work to uncover new regulators of lysosome tubulation. His initial work led to the discovery that DAF-16 and HLH-30, two transcription factors linked to aging regulation, are critical for efficient lysosome tubulation.
PhD #3 from the Johnson lab! Congrats @cristianric.bsky.social !
Remarkably, experimental stimulation of lysosome tubules by over-expression of a small lysosomal gene (SVIP) promotes nuclear localization of HLH-30 in a cell autonomous and cell non-autonomous fashion, which we hypothesize contributes to systemic benefits that support healthy aging.
Transcriptomic analyses revealed that DAF-16 and HLH-30 cooperate to induce expression of lipid metabolism genes, including vps-34 and bec-1, that support lysosome membrane remodeling.
Excellent work by first author graduate student Cristian Ricaurte-Perez who is currently supported by an American Heart Association predoctoral fellowship and will be applying for postdocs soon! @cristianric.bsky.social @lsuscience.bsky.social
In previous work published in @nataging.nature.com, we showed that lysosomes transform into tubular networks upon food limitation; this morphological transformation of lysosomes promotes faster autophagic cargo turnover and is required for the beneficial effects of dietary restriction.
In our newest paper published in @natcomms.nature.com, we show that DAF-16/FOXO and HLH-30/TFRB promote healthy aging, in part, by activating lipid metabolism genes that remodel lysosomes into tubular networks (more in comments below).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Alyssa Johnson
"When chance brought a lone crustacean to [an LSU] scientist’s car park in the USA, he had an unusual response: try to get an exceptionally detailed 3D scan of the animal." - BBC Wildlife Magazine
discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts... @lsu.bsky.social
Enjoy this animation of sleep neurons in a fruit fly... and while you are at it, did you know fruit flies are teaching us how some people can get by with 4-5 hours of sleep every night just fine?!
It has to do with a genetic variant that boosts mitochondrial function! www.lsu.edu/blog/2026/03...
