rab-33 is not required for cuticle integrity in Caenorhabditis elegans

MicroPubl Biol. 2025 Mar 16:2025:10.17912/micropub.biology.001516. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001516. eCollection 2025.

Abstract

Rab GTPases are master regulators of intracellular transport. We previously showed that a rab-6.2 deletion leads to a compromised cuticle, glycosylation defects, and increased axon regeneration. Mammalian orthologs of rab-6.2 and rab-33 have been shown to mediate Golgi trafficking of cargo in mammalian cells, including that of glycosyltransferase enzymes. We engineered a novel STOP-IN putative null allele of rab-33 ( axr2 ) to determine if loss of function of rab-33 phenocopies the phenotypes seen in rab-6.2 ( ok2254 ). Our results suggest that rab-33 is not required for cuticle integrity.

Grants and funding

Funding was provided by the Faculty Study and Research Grant, the Davidson Research Initiative grant, and the RISE program through the Biology department at Davidson College.