Defining the necessity of the lipoic acid synthase lias-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans

Lipoic acid is an essential cofactor for multiple enzymes involved in aerobic respiration, and disruption to any of the pathways contributing to lipoic acid synthesis result in severe respiratory dysfunction. Despite the importance of lipoic acid, few studies have directly investigated the necessity of the lipoic acid synthase itself in eukaryotes. We have used <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> to address this gap and created CRISPR knockouts of <i>lias-1</i> , the first <i>lias-1</i> knockouts reported in <i>C. elegans</i> . These mutants show developmental arrest, sterility, and shortened lifespan which cannot be rescued by supplementing with exogenous lipoic acid suggesting a necessity for <i>de novo</i> lipoic acid synthesis in <i>C. elegans</i> .