Overexpression of caveolins in Caenorhabditis elegans induces changes in egg-laying and fecundity.

Caveolae are small plasma membrane-associated invaginations that are enriched in proteins of the caveolin family in addition to, sphingolipids, glycosphingolipids and cholesterol. Caveolae have been implicated in several endocytic and trafficking mechanisms. Mutations in caveolins have been shown to cause disease and caveolae offer one site for pathogen entry. The Caenorhabditis elegans genome encodes two caveolins (cav-1 and cav-2); we have shown that these two proteins have distinct expression patterns. CAV-1 is found in the majority of cells in embryos and in the body-wall muscles, neurons and germ line of adult worms. CAV-2 is expressed in the intestine and is required for apical lipid trafficking. In the course of our studies, we generated several constructs to overexpress caveolins in C. elegans. Here we show that overexpression of cav-1 protects against the decrease in brood size associated with the effects of heat shock and the presence of extrachromosomal arrays in heat-shocked animals. Furthermore, we show that overexpression of cav-2 in the nervous system increases the rate of egg-laying and total number of eggs laid.