Mohamad Amr Zaini receives scientific presentation award

06 December 2017

Mohamad Amr Zaini of the Calkhoven laboratory receives the scientific presentation award from Prof. Dr Björn Schumacher, the president of the German Foundation of Aging Research, which was held in Cologne, December 2-3.

Cellular metabolism is a tightly controlled process in which the cell adapts fluxes through metabolic pathways in response to changes in nutrient supply. Among the transcription factors that regulate gene expression and thereby cause changes in cellular metabolism is the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (C/EBPα). We show that C/EBPα is acetylated by the lysine acetyltransferase (KAT) p300 and deacetylated by the lysine deacetylase (KDAC) Sirtuin1 (SIRT1). SIRT1 is activated in times of energy demand by high levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and controls mitochondrial biogenesis and function. A non-acetylated mutant of C/EBPα induces the transcription of mitochondrial genes and results in increased mitochondrial respiration. Our study identifies C/EBPα as a key mediator of SIRT1-controlled adaption of energy homeostasis to changes in nutrient supply.

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