Sulfation and related genes in Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Sulfation has become apparent as a critical biomolecule modification, where it plays a major role in homeostasis, development and morphogenesis in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. Caenorhabditis elegans comprises most of the orthologs of mammalian sulfation-related genes, and it provides a powerful tool to study the various roles of sulfation at a single-cell level. Such a detailed analysis of sulfation is not available in other model organisms, such as Drosophila and mice. In this minireview, we list all the possible, bioinformatically selected, sulfation related genes in this nematode, and review the results of gene knockout experiments (RNAi and deletion mutagenesis) carried out in our laboratory, and by others. Further study using this unique and superior model organism will provide a unique opportunity to review the critical roles of sulfation in multicellular organisms.