%0 Journal Article
%A Niedworok, Patrizia
%A Ciliberti, Rossella Erminia
%A Xie, Beijia
%A Mathew, Amal John
%A Jussila, Benjamin
%A Lawson, Jennifer A
%A De Domenico, Elena
%A Paulusch, Stefan
%A Beyer, Marc
%A Nicotera, Pierluigi
%A Aziz, N Ahmad
%A Ehninger, Dan
%A Blaess, Sandra
%A Bano, Daniele
%T BCL-11 enables adaptive stress responses to environmental challenges.
%J iScience
%V 29
%N 2
%@ 2589-0042
%C St. Louis
%I Elsevier
%M DZNE-2026-00150
%P 114422
%D 2026
%X Insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) is a master regulator of metabolism, stress resilience, and cell homeostasis in multicellular organisms. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, DAF-2 regulates dauer diapause, animal growth, and lifespan extension in a DAF-16/FOXO-dependent manner. Here we investigated IIS in animals expressing pathogenic variants of BCL-11, an evolutionarily conserved transcription factor that has been implicated in human neurodevelopmental disorders. We found that hypomorphic bcl-11 mutations have a limited impact on C. elegans growth and survival under standard growth conditions. On the contrary, BCL-11 deficiency compromises the cytoprotective properties of daf-2 signaling upon animal exposure to stress. During embryonic development, daf-16 loss of function rescues egg hatching defects in daf-2;bcl-11 mutants, suggesting a transcriptional interplay between BCL-11 and DAF-16 in IIS-deficient animals. Together, our data suggest that BCL-11 actively regulates transcription during development, while in adult animals it is recruited in response to environmental insults to enhance stress resilience.
%K biological sciences (Other)
%K cell biology (Other)
%K health sciences (Other)
%K molecular biology (Other)
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:41641102
%2 pmc:PMC12865584
%R 10.1016/j.isci.2025.114422
%U https://pub.dzne.de/record/285025