Exploration for a Detox Pathway-Discovery and haracterization of New Genes in the Pathway

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We are constantly exposed to harmful substances from foods and environments. Besides, our body also produces such metabolites quite unkind to our own tissues, cells, and genetic materials as reactive oxygen species. We do have innate defense systems, however, against these assaults. One of them involves a detoxifying (detox) enzyme system, where harmful substances are first recognized, captured, transformed, and finally expelled outside the body. We explored this system using the model animal C. elegans and have found that an XREP-1/XREP-3 pair plays a vital role in the detox system. XREP-1 functions as a sensor to recognize harmful substances and XREP-3 as a processor to initiate the production of detox enzymes. This pair resembles the mammalian Keap1/Nfr2 pair, indicating that a similar system is working in the human body.