Nuclear lipids: biomolecular interactions and function

AE Lewis group: Lipid Function in the Nucleus in Health and Disease

Lipids are essential for life. At the cellular level, they are structural components of all cellular membranes. They also function as energy stores, cellular signalling molecules, precursors to steroid hormones and regulators of transcription factors. Recent lipidomics analyses in mammalian cells have highlighted the dynamic remodelling of different lipid species in health and diseases.

In addition, lipids, in particular the signaling lipids, phosphoinositides, regulate cellular functions due to their compartmentalisation to discrete areas of the cells. Our lab studies their nuclear functions using quantitative interactomics, molecular and cell biology.

Lipids in the nucleus: what are they doing there?

Lipid functions, and in particular that of phosphoinositides (PI), are found within the confine of the nucleus but their roles remain unclear. To fill this gap, our lab focuses on mapping protein-PI interactomes formed in this organelle in healthy and pathological states for which the phosphoinositide metabolic pathways are known to be altered, particularly in obesity, insulin resistance and cancer.

Our group is therefore interested in addressing the following questions:

1. Which protein-PI interactions are formed in the nucleus and how?

2. What are the functions of these interactions?

3. Which protein-PI interactions are disrupted in cancer and insulin resistance and contribute to the development of these diseases?

To learn more about nuclear PI and PI interactomes, check our review on "Polyphosphoinositides in the Nucleus: Roadmap of Their Effectors and Mechanisms of Interaction"