TY - JOUR. T1 - Evolution of the LINE-like I element in the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. AU - Sezutsu, Hideki. AU - Nitasaka, Eiji. AU - Yamazaki, Tsuneyuki. PY - 1995/3/1. Y1 - 1995/3/1. N2 - LINE-like retrotransposons, the so-called I elements, control the system of I-R (inducer-reactive) hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. I elements are present in many Drosophila species. It has been suggested that active, complete I elements, located at different sites on the chromosomes, invaded natural populations of D. melanogaster recently (1920-1970). But old strains lacking active I elements have only defective I elements located in the chromocenter. We have cloned I elements from D. melanogaster and the melanogaster subgroup. In D. melanogaster, the nucleotide sequences of chromocentral I elements differed from those on chromosome arms by as much as 7%. All the I elements of D. mauritiana and D. sechellia are more closely related to the chromosomal I elements of D. melanogaster ...
Van Der Straten, A., Johansen, H., Sweet, R., & Rosenberg, M. (1987). Efficient expression of foreign genes in cultured drosophila melanogaster cells using hygromycin B selection. In Y. Kuroda, E. Kurstak, & K. Maramorosch (Eds.), Invertebrate and Fish Tissue Culture: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Invertebrate and Fish Tissue Culture, Japan (pp. 131-134). New York, NY: Springer Verlag ...
The current analysis of transposon elements (TE) in Drosophila melanogaster at Evolution Canyon, (EC), Israel, is based on data and analysis done by our collaborators (Drs. J. Gonzalez, J. Martinez and W. Makalowski, this issue). They estimated the frequencies of 28 TEs (transposon elements) in fruit flies (D. melanogaster) from the ecologically tropic, hot, and dry south-facing slope (SFS) or
3.0.CO;2-T, The Genomic Basis of Postponed Senescence in Drosophila melanogaster, Evidence for premature aging in a Drosophila model of Werner syndrome, Drosophila mate copying correlates with atmospheric pressure in a speed learning situation, Male fruit flies learn to avoid interspecific courtship, Sexual experience enhances Drosophila melanogaster male mating behavior and success, tinman and bagpipe: two homeo box genes that determine cell fates in the dorsal mesoderm of Drosophila, The structure and evolution of cis-regulatory regions: the shavenbaby story, Drosophila melanogaster alcohol dehydrogenase: mechanism of aldehyde oxidation and dismutation, The influence of Adh function on ethanol preference and tolerance in adult Drosophila melanogaster, Genetics and genomics of alcohol responses in Drosophila, Ecological Niche Difference Associated with Varied Ethanol Tolerance between Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae), Deletion of a ...
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Abstract: Currently, there are significant gaps in understanding of the regulatory mechanisms involved in nociceptor sensitivity. Dysregulated nociceptor sensitivity is the likely pathogenesis in many types of chronic pain, a disease that ails over 100 million people in the United States alone. To improve current chronic pain therapies, it is essential to define the regulatory mechanisms responsible for nociception. The goal of this study was to characterize how genes classically involved in RNA processing and translation regulate nociceptor sensitivity. The model organism Drosophila melanogaster was used for this study because of their quantifiable response to noxious stimuli and the powerful tools available for genetic manipulations. My results suggest that eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs) and components of the exon junction complex (EJC) control nociceptor sensitivity by regulating RNA processing and translation, suggesting a major role for RNA metabolism and translation in controlling ...
An artificial selection on positive and negative phototaxis of eyeless (ey) Drosophila melanogaster line was carried out. Expression of the ey trait in imago was estimating during the selection. The fitness of the + and selected lines was evaluated by such components as heat resistance, life span, fertility of flies. The genetic analysis of phototaxis inheritance was carried out. It was found that phototaxis selection results in changes of fertility whereas it doesn t affect other indices of fitness to environmental conditions as well as the ey expression. The main polygenic systems of phototaxis inheritance are located in chromosome 2 and chromosome 3.. ...
We have used flow visualizations and instantaneous force measurements of tethered fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) to study the dynamics of force generation during flight. During each complete stroke cycle, the flies generate one single vortex loop consisting of vorticity shed during the downstroke and ventral flip. This gross pattern of wake structure in Drosophila is similar to those described for hovering birds and some other insects. The wake structure differed from those previously described, however, in that the vortex filaments shed during ventral stroke reversal did not fuse to complete a circular ring, but rather attached temporarily to the body to complete an inverted heart-shaped vortex loop. The attached ventral filaments of the loop subsequently slide along the length of the body and eventually fuse at the tip of the abdomen. We found no evidence for the shedding of wing-tip vorticity during the upstroke, and argue that this is due to an extreme form of the Wagner effect acting ...
Dedicated to the memory of George Lefevre in recognition of his exhaustive cytogenetic analysis of the X chromosome, |b|The Genome of Drosophila melanogaster|/b| is the complete compendium of what is known about the genes and chromosomes of this widely used model organism. The volume is an up-to-date revision of Lindsley and Grells 1968 work, Genetic Variations of Drosophila melanogaster. The new edition contains complete descriptions of normal and mutant genes including phenotypic, cytological, molecular, and bibliographic information. In addition, it describes thousands of recorded chromosome rearrangements used in research on Drosophila. This handbook and its accompanying polytene chromosome maps, are sturdily bound into the book as foldouts and available as a separate set, are essential research tools for the Drosophila community.|br||br|Key Features |br|* Describes phenotype, cytology, and molecular biology of all recorded genes of Drosophila melanogaster, plus references to the literature|br
Patients surviving sepsis demonstrate sustained inflammation, which has been associated with long-term complications. One of the main mechanisms behind sustained inflammation is a metabolic switch in parenchymal and immune cells, thus understanding metabolic alterations after sepsis may provide important insights to the pathophysiology of sepsis recovery. In this study, we explored metabolomics in a novel Drosophila melanogaster model of surviving sepsis using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), to determine metabolite profiles. We used a model of percutaneous infection in Drosophila melanogaster to mimic sepsis. We had three experimental groups: sepsis survivors (infected with Staphylococcus aureus and treated with oral linezolid), sham (pricked with an aseptic needle), and unmanipulated (positive control). We performed metabolic measurements seven days after sepsis. We then implemented metabolites detected in NMR spectra into the MetExplore web server in order to identify the metabolic pathway
The JAK/STAT pathway is an essential signalling cascade required for multiple processes during development and for adult homeostasis. A key question in understanding this pathway is how it is regulated in different cell contexts. Here we have examined how endocytic processing contributes to signalling by the single cytokine receptor, Domeless, in Drosophila melanogaster cells. We identify an evolutionarily conserved di-Leu motif that is required for Domeless internalisation and show that endocytosis is required for activation of a subset of Domeless targets. Our data indicate that endocytosis both qualitatively and quantitatively regulates Domeless signalling. STAT92E, the single STAT transcription factor in Drosophila, appears to be the target of endocytic regulation and our studies show that phosphorylation of STAT92E on Tyr704, while necessary, is not always sufficient for target transcription. Finally, we identify a conserved residue, Thr702, which is essential for Tyr704 phosphorylation. ...
Humanised fruit fly models are transgenic Drosophila melanogaster strains expressing human genes. Specifically, we study the characteristics of fly models expressing human genes involved in neurological disorders such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons Diseases (AD and PD). Interestingly, these Drosophila neurodegenerative disease models show a high degree of conservation in the fundamental biological pathways and in the molecular, genetic and pathophysiological aspects of neurodegenerative human diseases. These characteristics explain why Drosophila models have paved the way for the development of initial fast screening for potential drug candidates in vivo, and represent also a promising tool for biomedical research in neuroscience ...
Localizing genes that are subject to recent positive selection is a major goal of evolutionary biology. In the model organism Drosophila melanogaster many attempts have been made in recent years to identify such genes by conducting so-called genome scans of selection. These analyses consisted in typing a large number of genetic markers along the genomes of a sample of individuals and then identifying those loci that harbor patterns of genetic variation, which are compatible with the ones generated by a selective sweep. In this study we conduct an in-depth analysis of a genomic region located on the X chromosome of D. melanogaster that was identified as a potential target of recent positive selection by a previous genome scan of selection. To this end we re-sequenced 20 kilobases around the Flotillin-2 gene (Flo-2) and conducted a detailed analysis of the allele frequencies and linkage disequilibria observed in this new dataset. The results of this analysis reveal eight genetic novelties that are ...
Article: Moran CN & Kyriacou CP (2009) Functional neurogenetics of the courtship song of male Drosophila melanogaster. Cortex, 45 (1), pp. 18-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2008.05.010
Author Summary Organisms such as the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster have long been used as model systems to understand complex aspects of human biology. Work on Drosophila antimicrobial immunity has led to identification of mechanisms underlying human innate immunity, such as the use of Toll-like receptors for recognizing antigen and initiating humoral immune responses. Flies and humans are also infected by larger parasites against which they mount immune blood-cell based responses, but the genetic basis for cellular immunity is poorly characterized. In nature, flies are often infected by parasitoid wasps that lay their eggs in fly larvae, inducing a cellular immune response in the flies. Fly blood cells surround the wasp egg and form a tightly connected capsule leading to death of the egg in a process called encapsulation, which is similar to human granuloma formation. In this study we identified eight new genes that are important for encapsulation. These genes are part of the N-glycosylation pathway
When Drosophila melanogaster embryos initiate zygotic transcription around mitotic cycle 10, the dose-sensitive expression of specialized genes on the X chromosome triggers a sex-determination cascade that, among other things, compensates for differences in sex chromosome dose by hypertranscribing t …
Assembly/Alignment/Annotation of 12 related Drosophila species: »Assembly/Alignment/Annotation, LBNL, USA BDGP Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Project: »Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project, University of California, Berkeley, USA Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project (BDGP): »BDGP, University of California, Berkeley, USA BDTNP, ChIP/chip in vivo DNA binding data: »Berkeley Drosophila Transcription Network Project, University of California, Berkeley, USA CluSTr protein sequence similarity analysis of Drosophila: »CluSTr proteome analysis, EBI, UK D. pseudoobscura genome project: »Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, USA D. simulans genome project: »Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University, USA D. yakuba genome project: »Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University, USA D.melanogaster UCSC Genome Browser Gateway: »University of California, Santa Cruz, USA DDBJ, the DNA Data Bank of Japan: »DDBJ, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan DNase I ...
TY - JOUR. T1 - The M/SAR elements of the bithorax complex in Drosophila melanogaster. AU - Boykova, T. V.. AU - Orlando, V.. AU - Lupo, R.. AU - Bogachev, S. S.. PY - 2005/11. Y1 - 2005/11. N2 - The bithorax (BX) complex of Drosophila is a complex polygenic region with a multifactorial system of regulation. One of the levels of the regulatory system of the BX complex is its association with the nuclear skeleton structures through a specific interaction of the M/SAR DNA with the nuclear matrix proteins. In the present work, M/SAR elements were mapped on the molecular-genetic map of the region. All of the elements examined were found to colocalize with regulatory elements and form clusters that restrict/bracket the genetically active domains. All M/SAR DNA revealed was shown to bins specifically to the purified Drosophila melanogaster lamin.. AB - The bithorax (BX) complex of Drosophila is a complex polygenic region with a multifactorial system of regulation. One of the levels of the regulatory ...
Ring canals in the female germline of Drosophila melanogaster are supported by a robust filamentous actin (F-actin) cytoskeleton, setting them apart from ring canals in other species and tissues. Previous work has identified components required for the expansion of the ring canal actin cytoskeleton, but has not identified the proteins responsible for F-actin recruitment or accumulation. Using a combination of CRISPR-Cas9 mediated mutagenesis and UAS-Gal4 overexpression, we show that HtsRC-a component specific to female germline ring canals-is both necessary and sufficient to drive F-actin accumulation. Absence of HtsRC in the germline resulted in ring canals lacking inner rim F-actin, while overexpression of HtsRC led to larger ring canals. HtsRC functions in combination with Filamin to recruit F-actin to ectopic actin structures in somatic follicle cells. Finally, we present findings that indicate that HtsRC expression and robust female germline ring canal expansion are important for high ...
To what extent is adaptive evolution over short timescales repeatable? To address this question, we studied the performance of crosses between replicate Drosophila melanogaster lines previously subject to selection for improved learning response in the context of oviposition substrate choice. Of the 10 pairwise F1 crosses among the five selection lines, four performed in the original learning assay similarly to the parental lines, whereas the remaining six showed learning scores significantly below the average of the parental lines. In particular, four F1 crosses (three involving the same line) showed no detectable learning, on a par with unselected control lines. This indicates that the response to selection in some lines involved allelic substitutions at different loci. Additional assays of crosses between two selection lines indicated that the loss of performance in hybrids generalized to another type of learning assay, and held for both short- and long-term memory. Joint analysis of first- and
Seminal fluid contains some of the fastest evolving proteins currently known. These seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) play crucial roles in reproduction, such as supporting sperm function, and particularly in insects, modifying female physiology and behaviour. Identification of Sfps in small animals is challenging, and often relies on samples taken from the female reproductive tract after mating. A key pitfall of this method is that it might miss Sfps that are of low abundance due to dilution in the female derived sample or rapid processing in females. Here we present a new and complementary method, which provides added sensitivity to Sfp identification. We applied label-free quantitative proteomics to Drosophila melanogaster male reproductive tissue, where Sfps are unprocessed, and highly abundant, and quantified Sfps before and immediately after mating, to infer those transferred during copulation. We also analysed female reproductive tracts immediately before and after copulation to confirm the presence
Semantic Scholar extracted view of Biochemical phylogeny of the eight species in the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup, including D. sechellia and D. orena. by M L Cariou
TY - JOUR. T1 - Molecular cloning of the Drosophila melanogaster gene χ5 dm encoding a 20S proteasome χ-type subunit. AU - Zaiss, Dietmar. AU - Belote, John M.. N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank Dr Russ Finley for the pJG4-5 cDNA library and Dr Kerrie-Ann Smyth for providing the salivary gland chromosome squashes for the in situ hybridization experiment, Evan Katz for carrying out the reduced stringency hybridization screen, and Xiaoqing Yuan for mapping Pros29 (a3_dm). We would also like to thank Jing Ma, Mary Miller and Kerrie-Ann Smyth for their helpful comments on the manuscript. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. MCB-9506885. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.. PY - 1997/11/12. Y1 - 1997/11/12. N2 - Proteasomes are large, multisubunit particles that act as the ...
Calcium signaling are conserved from invertebrates to vertebrates and plays critical roles in many molecular mechanisms of embryogenesis and postnatal development. As a critical component of the signaling pathway, the RyR medicated calcium-induced calcium release signaling system, has been well studied along with their regulator FK506-binding protein 12 (FKBP12/Calstabin). Lack of FKBP12 is known to result in lethal cardiac dysfunction in mouse. However, precisely how FKBP12 is regulated and effects calcium signaling in Drosophila melanogaster remains largely unknown. In this study, we identified both temporal and localization changes in expression of DmFKBP12, a translational and transcriptional regulator of Drosophila RyR (DmRyR) and FKBP12, through embryonic development. DmFKBP12 is first expressed at the syncytial blastoderm stage and undergoes increased expression during the cellular blastoderm and early gastrulation stages. At late gastrulation, DmFKBP12 expression begins to decline until it
Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, has been used as a model organism in both medical and scientific research for over a century. Work by Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945) and his students at Columbia University at the beginning of the twentieth century led to great discoveries such as sex-linked inheritance and that ionising radiation causes mutations in genes. However, the use of Drosophila was not limited to genetic research. Experimentation with this model organism has also led to discoveries in neuroscience and neurodevelopment, including the basis of circadian rhythms. Its complex nervous system, conserved neurological function, and human disease-related loci allow Drosophila to be an ideal model organism for the study of neurodegenerative disease, for which it is used today, aiding research into diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons, which are becoming more prevalent in todays ageing population.. Keywords Drosophila melanogaster, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Alfred Henry ...
Background. The calcium-imaging technique allows us to record movies of brain activity in the antennal lobe of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, a brain compartment dedicated to information about odors. Signal processing, e.g. with source separation techniques, can be slow on the large movie datasets.,br /,Method. We have developed an approximate Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for fast dimensionality reduction. The method samples relevant pixels from the movies, such that PCA can be performed on a smaller matrix. Utilising a priori knowledge about the nature of the data, we minimise the risk of missing important pixels.,br /,Results. Our method allows for fast approximate computation of PCA with adaptive resolution and running time. Utilising a priori knowledge about the data enables us to concentrate more biological signals in a small pixel sample than a general sampling method based on vector norms.,br /,Conclusions. Fast dimensionality reduction with approximate PCA removes a ...
1. The optomotor control of orientation and locomotion in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster requires the conveyance of information from distinct movement detectors in the visual system to distinct movement effectors in the motor system. Abnormalities of the optomotor control system have been found occasionally in Drosophila.. 2. The abnormal flies can be isolated from population samples by appropriate fractionation according to the magnitude and the sign of the optomotor responses. A cyclically operating machine was used to fractionate two inbred strains, w+ and wα, which possess different alleles on the white-locus of their X-chromosomes.. 3. Movements of an artificial visual environment elicit similar orientation-control responses, but antagonistic locomotion-control responses in the two strains. The responses depend on various parameters and may even change with habituation to the stimulus. However, the application of selection pressure through eight generations has little if any effect ...
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TY - JOUR. T1 - Identification and genetic localization of mRNAs from ovarian follicle cells of Drosophila melanogaster. AU - Spradling, Allan C.. AU - Mahowald, Anthony P.. PY - 1979. Y1 - 1979. N2 - RNA synthesis in ovarian follicles of Drosophila melanogaster was studied by methods which eliminate experimentally induced alterations in gene expression. Gel electrophoresis of follicular RNA, labeled after injection of precursors into females, revealed qualitative and quantitative differences in synthesis during the course of oogenesis. A highly heterogeneous group of poly(A)-containing RNAs is produced during much of the course of follicular development. However, post-vitellogenic stages synthesize a small number of stage-specific poly(A)-containing RNAs. During this period, RNA synthesis is known to take place primarily in the follicle cells, which are engaged in the production of the endochorion and exochorion. Two intense bands of nonmitochondrial poly(A)+ RNA are labeled between stage 11 ...
P-13. Transcription Profiling of Cell Death in Drosophila Melanogaster. S. Chittaranjan, E. Garland, D. Freeman, S. Jones, M. Marra, and S. Gorski, Genome Sequence Centre BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, CANADA. Programmed Cell death - PCD - is a highly conserved and genetically controlled event that plays important roles in animal development, homeostasis and disease. We are employing a genomics approach, using EST and SAGE, to identify new PCD genes that are transciptionally regulated in the salivary glands - SGs - of Drosophila. We constructed a SG-specific cDNA library and SG-miniSAGE libraries from three consecutive developmental stages leading up to PCD.5461 high quality 3 ESTs from our SG cDNA library were used to perform BLAST analysis against Drosophila predicted genes and genomic sequence from the Drosophila Genome Project. The majority of the ESTs matched known or predicted genes in Drosophila including a number of ecdysone-induced genes and known PCD genes. We also identified a ...
JURNAL DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER PDF - geotaxis (Hi5) strains of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) differ in Keywords: gene-pleiotropy; Drosophila; geotaxis; circadian; cry; Pdf; tau. During
Drosophila Melanogaster, the common fruit fly, is a model organism which has been extensively used in entymological research. It is one of the most studied organisms in biological research, particularly in genetics and developmental biology. When its not being used for scientific research, D. melanogaster is a common pest in homes, restaurants, and anywhere else that serves food. They are not to be confused with Tephritidae flys (also known as fruit flys). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster
The natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans were compared for their genetic structure. A total of 114 gene-protein loci were studied in four mainland (from Europe and Africa) and an island (Seychelle) populations of D. simulans and the results were compared with those obtained on the same set of homologous loci in fifteen worldwide populations of D. melanogaster. The main results are as follows: (1) D. melanogaster shows a significantly higher proportion of loci polymorphic than D. simulans (52% vs. 39%, P , 0.05), (2) both species have similar mean heterozygosity and mean number of alleles per locus, (3) the two species share some highly polymorphic loci but they do not share loci that show high geographic differentiation, and (4) D. simulans shows significantly less geographic differentiation than D. melanogaster. The differences in genetic differentiation between the two species are limited to loci located on the X and second chromosomes only; loci on the third ...
The main goal of this thesis was to develop demographic models of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster using Approximate Bayesian Computation and Next Generation Sequencing Data. These models were used to reconstruct the history of African, European, and North American populations. Chapter 1 deals with the demographic history of North American D. melanogaster. This project was motivated by the release of full-genome sequences of a North American population, which showed greater diversity than European D. melanogaster although the introduction of the fruit fly to North America dates back to only �200 years ago. Here, we tested di�erent demographic models involving populations of Zimbabwe, The Netherlands, and North Carolina (North America). Among the tested models we included variants with and without migration, as well as a model involving admixture between the population of Africa and Europe that generated the population of North America. We found that the admixture model �ts best the ...
Satellite DNA can make up a substantial fraction of eukaryotic genomes and has roles in genome structure and chromosome segregation. The rapid evolution of satellite DNA can contribute to genomic instability and genetic incompatibilities between species. Despite its ubiquity and its contribution to genome evolution, we currently know little about the dynamics of satellite DNA evolution. The Responder (Rsp) satellite DNA family is found in the pericentric heterochromatin of chromosome 2 of Drosophila melanogaster. Rsp is well-known for being the target of Segregation Distorter (SD) an autosomal meiotic drive system in D. melanogaster. I present an evolutionary genetic analysis of the Rsp family of repeats in D. melanogaster and its closely-related species in the melanogaster group (D. simulans, D. sechellia, D. mauritiana, D. erecta, and D. yakuba) using a combination of available BAC sequences, whole genome shotgun Sanger reads, Illumina short read deep sequencing, and fluorescence in situ hybridization
Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides in the world and are implicated in the widespread population declines of insects including pollinators. Neonicotinoids target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors which are expressed throughout the insect central nervous system, causing a wide range of sub-lethal effects on non-target insects. Here, we review the potential of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to model the sub-lethal effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators, by utilizing its well-established assays that allow rapid identification and mechanistic characterization of these effects. We compare studies on the effects of neonicotinoids on lethality, reproduction, locomotion, immunity, learning, circadian rhythms and sleep in D. melanogaster and a range of pollinators. We also highlight how the genetic tools available in D. melanogaster, such as GAL4/UAS targeted transgene expression system combined with RNAi lines to any gene in the genome including the different nicotinic acetylcholine
Insects possess a rhythmically active tubular heart that shows remarkable similarity to the mammalian heart despite differing in gross structure. Studies in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, have demonstrated remarkable molecular and developmental similarities between the two. Key genes in heart development are homologous between insects and mammals (e.g. tinman), as are key components of cardiac myocyte physiology, including ion channels, pumps and exchangers.. Consequently, studies of the Drosophila heart can provide invaluable insights into the functioning of the mammalian hearts but little of this potential has been realised. Investigations of the Drosophila heart have focussed almost exclusively on the output of the larval heart measured through the electrocardiogram (ECG), ignoring the cellular level. Yet, heart cells are capable of showing substantial plasticity and redundancy so knowing the overall output is insufficient to characterise the impact of changes in molecular networks ...
Insects possess a rhythmically active tubular heart that shows remarkable similarity to the mammalian heart despite differing in gross structure. Studies in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, have demonstrated remarkable molecular and developmental similarities between the two. Key genes in heart development are homologous between insects and mammals (e.g. tinman), as are key components of cardiac myocyte physiology, including ion channels, pumps and exchangers.. Consequently, studies of the Drosophila heart can provide invaluable insights into the functioning of the mammalian hearts but little of this potential has been realised. Investigations of the Drosophila heart have focussed almost exclusively on the output of the larval heart measured through the electrocardiogram (ECG), ignoring the cellular level. Yet, heart cells are capable of showing substantial plasticity and redundancy so knowing the overall output is insufficient to characterise the impact of changes in molecular networks ...
One of the key tenets of life-history theory is that reproduction and survival are linked and that they trade-off with each other. When dietary resources are limited, reduced reproduction with a concomitant increase in survival is commonly observed. It is often hypothesized that this dietary restriction effect results from strategically reduced investment in reproduction in favor of somatic maintenance to survive starvation periods until resources become plentiful again. We used experimental evolution to test this waiting-for-the-good-times hypothesis, which predicts that selection under sustained dietary restriction will favor increased investment in reproduction at the cost of survival because good-times never come. We assayed fecundity and survival of female Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies that had evolved for 50 generations on three different diets varying in protein content-low (classic dietary restriction diet), standard, and high-in a full-factorial design. High-diet females ...
TY - JOUR. T1 - The relation between recombination rate and patterns of molecular evolution and variation in Drosophila melanogaster. AU - Campos, José L. AU - Halligan, Daniel L. AU - Haddrill, Penelope R. AU - Charlesworth, Brian. PY - 2014/4. Y1 - 2014/4. N2 - Genetic recombination associated with sexual reproduction increases the efficiency of natural selection by reducing the strength of Hill-Robertson interference. Such interference can be caused either by selective sweeps of positively selected alleles or by background selection (BGS) against deleterious mutations. Its consequences can be studied by comparing patterns of molecular evolution and variation in genomic regions with different rates of crossing over. We carried out a comprehensive study of the benefits of recombination in Drosophila melanogaster, both by contrasting five independent genomic regions that lack crossing over with the rest of the genome and by comparing regions with different rates of crossing over, using data on ...
Monoclonal antibodies were prepared against a 46,000 mol wt major cytoplasmic protein from Drosophila melanogaster Kc cells. These antibodies reacted with the 46,000 and a 40,000 mol wt protein from Kc cells. Some antibodies showed cross-reaction with 55,000 (vimentin) and 52,000 mol wt (desmin) proteins from baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells that form intermediate sized filaments in vertebrate cells. In indirect immunofluorescence, the group of cross reacting antibodies stained a filamentous meshwork in the cytoplasm of vertebrate cells. In Kc cells the fluorescence seemed to be localized in a filamentous meshwork that became more obvious after the cells had flattened out on a surface. These cytoskeletal structures are heat-labile; the proteins in Kc or BHK cells rearrange after a brief heat shock, forming juxtanuclear cap structures.
This pre miRNA sequence is 68 nucleotides long and is found in Drosophila melanogaster. Annotated by 4 databases (RefSeq, FlyBase, miRBase, ENA). Described in 18 papers. Has a conserved secondary structure or a structured region. Matches 1 Rfam family (mir-2, RF00047). Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) microRNA dme-mir-13b precursor (dme-mir-13b-1) sequence is a product of mir-13b-1 precursor RNA, 13b-1 precursor RN, mir-13b-1, 13b-1 precursor RNA, FBgn0262367, mir-13b-1 precurso, dme-mir-13b-1 precursor, mir-13b-1 precursor genes.
TY - CHAP. T1 - Promoter Structures Conserved between Homo Sapiens, Mus Musculus and Drosophila Melanogaster. AU - Jankovic, Boris R.. AU - Archer, John A.C.. AU - Chowdhary, Rajesh. AU - Schaefer, Ulf. AU - Bajic, Vladimir B.. N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01. PY - 2013. Y1 - 2013. N2 - Some of the key processes in living organisms remain essentially unchanged even in evolutionarily very distant species. Transcriptional regulation is one such fundamental process that is essential for cell survival. Transcriptional control exerts great part of its effects at the level of transcription initiation mediated through protein-DNA interactions mainly at promoters but also at other control regions. In this chapter, the authors identify conserved families of motifs of promoter regulatory structures between Homo sapiens, Mus musculus and Drosophila melanogaster. By a promoter regulatory structure they consider here a combination of motifs from identified motif families. Conservation of ...
A transposon based on the transposable element Minos from Drosophila hydei was introduced into the genome of Drosophila melanogaster using transformation mediated by the Minos transposase. The transposon carries a wild-type version of the white gene (w) of Drosophila inserted into the second exon of Minos. Transformation was obtained by injecting the transposon into preblastoderm embryos that were expressing transposase either from a Hsp70-Minos fusion inserted into the genome via P-element-mediated transformation or from a coinjected plasmid carrying the Hsp70-Minos fusion. Between 1% and 6% of the fertile injected individuals gave transformed progeny. Four of the insertions were cloned and the DNA sequences flanking the transposon ends were determined. The empty sites corresponding to three of the insertions were amplified from the recipient strain by PCR, cloned, and sequenced. In all cases, the transposon has inserted into a TA dinucleotide and has created the characteristic TA target site ...
Recent analysis of the human and mouse genomes has shown that a substantial proportion of protein coding genes and cis-regulatory elements contain transposable element (TE) sequences, implicating TE domestication as a mechanism for the origin of genetic novelty. To understand the general role of TE domestication in eukaryotic genome evolution, it is important to assess the acquisition of functional TE sequences by host genomes in a variety of different species, and to understand in greater depth the population dynamics of these mutational events. Using an in silico screen for host genes that contain TE sequences, we identified a set of 63 mature chimeric transcripts supported by expressed sequence tag (EST) evidence in the Drosophila melanogaster genome. We found a paucity of chimeric TEs relative to expectations derived from non-chimeric TEs, indicating that the majority (~80%) of TEs that generate chimeric transcripts are deleterious and are not observed in the genome sequence. Using a pooled-PCR
TY - JOUR. T1 - Temporal and spatial transcriptional profiles of aging in Drosophila melanogaster. AU - Zhan, Ming. AU - Yamaza, Haruyoshi. AU - Sun, Yu. AU - Sinclair, Jason. AU - Li, Huai. AU - Zou, Sige. PY - 2007. Y1 - 2007. N2 - Temporal and tissue-specific alterations in gene expression have profound effects on aging of multicellular organisms. However, much remains unknown about the patterns of molecular changes in different tissues and how different tissues interact with each other during aging. Previous genomic studies on invertebrate aging mostly utilized the whole body or body parts and limited age-points, and failed to address tissue-specific aging. Here we measured genome-wide expression profiles of aging in Drosophila melanogaster for seven tissues representing nervous, muscular, digestive, renal, reproductive, and storage systems at six adult ages. In each tissue, we identified hundreds of age-related genes exhibiting significant changes of transcript levels with age. The ...
Dimitris J. Panagopoulos, (2012): Gametogénesis, desarrollo embrionario y post-embrionario de Drosophila melanogaster, como un sistema modelo para la Evaluación de la Radiación y Genotoxicidad ambiental, en M. Spindler-Barth (Ed), Drosophila melanogaster : Ciclo de la Vida, Genética y Desarrollo, Nova Science Publishers, Nueva York, EE.UU.. Los experimentos Drosophila de Panagopoulos et al (2007: Muerte celular inducida por GSM 900 MHz y DCS 1800MHz radiación de telefonía móvil, Mutation Research, 626, 69 - 78.) fueron los primeros en mostrar daño en el ADN después de la exposición en vivo a la radiación del teléfono móvil GSM verdadero sólo unos pocos minutos al día durante unos días. Estos experimentos mostraron que la radiación GSM es aún más genotóxico que previamente arrojaron factores genotóxicos como los productos químicos, la privación de alimentos, y el calor. También explicaron la gran disminución de la reproducción (hasta 60%) del mismo animal ...
Background In Drosophila melanogaster, the male seminal fluid contains proteins that are important for reproductive success. Many of these proteins are synthesised by the male accessory glands and are secreted into the accessory gland lumen, where they are stored until required. Previous studies on the identification of Drosophila accessory gland products have largely focused on characterisation of male-specific accessory gland cDNAs from D. melanogaster and, more recently, Drosophila simulans. In the present study, we have used a proteomics approach without any sex bias to identify proteins in D. melanogaster accessory gland secretions. Results Thirteen secreted accessory gland proteins, including seven new accessory gland proteins, were identified by 2D-gel electrophoresis combined with mass spectrometry of tryptic fragments. They included protein-folding and stress-response proteins, a hormone, a lipase, a serpin, a cysteine-rich protein and two peptidases, a pro-enzyme form of a cathepsin ...
In contrast to male genitalia that typically exhibit patterns of rapid and divergent evolution among internally fertilizing animals, female genitalia have been less well studied and are generally thought to evolve slowly among closely-related species. As a result, few cases of male-female genital coevolution have been documented. In Drosophila, female copulatory structures have been claimed to be mostly invariant compared to male structures. Here, we re-examined male and female genitalia in the nine species of the D. melanogaster subgroup. We describe several new species-specific female genital structures that appear to coevolve with male genital structures, and provide evidence that the coevolving structures contact each other during copulation. Several female structures might be defensive shields against apparently harmful male structures, such as cercal teeth, phallic hooks and spines. Evidence for male-female morphological coevolution in Drosophila has previously been shown at the post-copulatory
TY - JOUR. T1 - Biochemical comparison of arginine kinase allozymes in Drosophila melanogaster. AU - Chien, Yi-Chih. AU - Collier, Glen E.. PY - 1997/10/1. Y1 - 1997/10/1. N2 - Biochemical comparison of arginine kinase allozymes in Drosophila melanogaster. Zoological Studies 36(4): 277-287. ARKB is a rare arginine kinase allozyme found in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster. To test whether the rarity of this allozyme could be due to its biochemical impairment relative to the common allozyme, biochemical properties such as catalytic efficiency and conformational stability of the rare (ARKB) and the common (ARKA) allozymes were compared in this study. Both allozymes were purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation, DEAE-ion-exchange column, Blue-Sepharose, and S-300 gel filtration, to yield a single coomassie-blue band on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. ARKA has a higher Vmax or Vmax/Km than ARKB at 18 or 29 °C, but there are no differences at 24 °C. In general, ARKA is catalytically more ...
TY - JOUR. T1 - Sequences of two cDNAs encoding silkworm homologues of Drosophila melanogaster squid gene. AU - Li, Feng Qian. AU - Sun, Guan Cheng. AU - Ueda, Hitoshi. AU - Hirose, Susumu. PY - 1995. Y1 - 1995. N2 - The squid (sqd) gene of Drosophila melanogaster encodes a few isoforms of a heterogeneous nuclear (hn) RNA-binding protein. We isolated two types of cDNAs coding for homologues of the Sqd protein from the silkworm Bombyx mori. The two predicted amino acid (aa) sequences are identical up to aa 280 and then diverge. The silkworm and fruit fly proteins share 80% homology in the RNA-binding motif region. These cDNAs detect 2.0-, 1.8- and 1-kb mRNAs in the middle and posterior silk glands.. AB - The squid (sqd) gene of Drosophila melanogaster encodes a few isoforms of a heterogeneous nuclear (hn) RNA-binding protein. We isolated two types of cDNAs coding for homologues of the Sqd protein from the silkworm Bombyx mori. The two predicted amino acid (aa) sequences are identical up to aa 280 ...
Modification of offspring sex ratios in response to parental quality is predicted when the long-term fitness returns of sons and daughters differ. One factor that may influence a mothers sex allocation decision is the quality (or attractiveness) of her mate. We investigated whether the sex ratios of offspring produced by female Drosophila melanogaster are biased with respect to the age of the males to which they are mated, and whether there is an adaptive basis for this phenomenon. We found that females mated to old males (13 d post-eclosion) initially produced a greater proportion of daughters than did females mated to young males (1 d post-eclosion). This pattern does not appear to be due to a systematic difference in the numbers or mortality of the X- and Y-bearing sperm originating from old and young fathers, as the overall sex ratios of all offspring produced from a single copulation did not differ between broods fathered by the two types of males. The sons of older males fared worse in ...
TY - JOUR. T1 - The genotoxicity of uva irradiation in drosophila melanogaster and the synergistic action of 8-methoxypsoralen and uva. AU - Negishi, Tomoe. AU - Tanabe, Fujimi. AU - Hayatsu, Hikoya. PY - 1992/8/1. Y1 - 1992/8/1. N2 - To study the genotoxicity of near-ultraviolet Light (UVA) on a whole body, Drosophila melanogaster larvae were irradiated with UVA and the emerging flies were examined for the mutant wing spot formation. The genotoxicity of UVA was also assayed with the in vivo DNA-repair test using males with repair-deficiency at the mei-9 and mei-41 locus and the matching repair-proficient females. Third-instar larvae were placed in a plastic Petri dish, which was covered with soft glass, and irradiated with black light at 4-5 W/m2. This irradiation resulted in an increase in mutant wing-hair spots. After a 15 h irradiation (̃240 kJ/m2, the mutant clone frequencies found in the adult flies (spots/wing) were: 1.68 for the small single spots, 0.38 for the large single spots and ...
The wing blade of Drosophila melanogaster is composed of dorsal and ventral surfaces covered with hairs and rows of morphologically distinct bristles round the margin. The mutant shaggy causes a complete transformation of hairs into bristles over the entire wing surfaces. Clones of mutant bristles have a tendency to line up into straight bristle rows. Clones are straight and orderly near the wing margin but form bundles and vesicles when a long distance from the margin. Furthermore the bristle cells move distally along the future wing blade in the general direction of the margin. From these studies, we postulate the existence of a gradient of cell affinities for bristle cells that is maximal at the dorsoventral wing margin and decreases with distance away from it. The bristle clones also move onto the wing veins and often induce the formation of new veins in the surrounding shaggy+ cells. These new veins run from the clone and join up to existing veins. We conclude that there is a close ...
TY - JOUR. T1 - On the analysis and interpretation of late-life fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster. AU - Curtsinger, James W.. N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015 Elsevier Inc. Copyright: Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.. PY - 2015/12/1. Y1 - 2015/12/1. N2 - Late-life plateaus have been described in both cohort and individual trajectories of fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster females. Here I examine life history data recently analyzed by Le Bourg and Moreau (2014) and show that non-linearity in the cohort trajectory of fecundity is largely explained by heterogeneity in the duration of reproductive life spans. A model specifying linear post-peak decline of fecundity in individual flies provides a better fit to the data than one that combines linear decline with late-life fecundity plateaus. Using repeated measures analysis of variance, I show that age-dependent trends in individual fecundity are mostly linear, while among the most longevous individuals up to 20% of the ...
var b=document.getElementsByTagName(script)[0]; Introduction. Drosophila melanogaster is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. In any case, the absence of a clear effect of the genetic duplication on sensitivity to a known channel inhibitor renders uninformative the failure of this manipulation to alter halothane potency. Authors provide evidence that in the Drosophila Shaker voltage-gated K (+) channels the S3 domain acts as an extracellular hydrophobic stabilizer for the S4 domain biasing the gating chemical equilibrium toward the open state. 1985 Sep; 2 (4):253-271. With recently developed genetic and molecular techniques the Drosophila melanogaster (D.m.) Thank you for sharing this Genetics article. Gene #3 1. The IA potassium channel is encoded by the Shaker (Sh) locus on the X chromosome of D.m. This shaking phenotype has been described previously in D. melanogaster by CATSCH (1944) who localized the dominant gene at 58 on the X-chromosome and ...
Cell division in the Malpighian tubules of Drosophila melanogaster depends on the presence of a specialised cell at the tip of each tubule (Skaer, H. le B (1989) Nature 342, 566-569). Here we show that cell division also depends on the normal expression of the segment polarity gene, wingless. The pattern of wingless RNA and protein in developing tubules is consistent with a requirement for wingless for cell division. Analysis of the temporal requirement for wingless using a temperature- sensitive allele confirms that the normal expression of wingless is necessary during cell proliferation in the Malpighian tubules. Over-expression of the gene, induced in a stock containing the wg gene under the control of a heat-shock promoter, results in supernumerary cells in the tubules. We discuss the role of wingless in the cell interactions that govern cell division in the Malpighian tubules.. ...
Seminal fluid contains some of the fastest evolving proteins currently known. These seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) play crucial roles in reproduction, such as supporting sperm function, and particularly in insects, modifying female physiology and behavior. Identification of Sfps in small animals is challenging, and often relies on samples taken from the female reproductive tract after mating. A key pitfall of this method is that it might miss Sfps that are of low abundance because of dilution in the female-derived sample or rapid processing in females. Here we present a new and complementary method, which provides added sensitivity to Sfp identification. We applied label-free quantitative proteomics to Drosophila melanogaster, male reproductive tissue - where Sfps are unprocessed, and highly abundant - and quantified Sfps before and immediately after mating, to infer those transferred during copulation. We also analyzed female reproductive tracts immediately before and after copulation to confirm the
The identification of a DNA variant in pyridoxal kinase (Pdxk) associated with increased risk to Parkinson disease (PD) gene led us to study the inhibition of this gene in the Dopa decarboxylase (Ddc)-expressing neurons of the well-studied model organism Drosophila melanogaster. The multitude of biological functions attributable to the vitamers catalysed by this kinase reveal an overabundance of possible links to PD, that include dopamine synthesis, antioxidant activity and mitochondrial function. Drosophila possesses a single homologue of Pdxk and we used RNA interference to inhibit the activity of this kinase in the Ddc-Gal4-expressing neurons. We further investigated any association between this enhanced disease risk gene with the established PD model induced by expression of α-synuclein in the same neurons. We relied on the pro-survival functions of Buffy, an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 homologue, to rescue the Pdxk-induced phenotypes. To drive the expression of Pdxk RNA interference in DA neurons of
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a principal model organism in metazoan genetics and molecular biology. Here, we describe a BAC-based physical map of chromosomes 2 and 3 constructed as part of the effort to determine the D. melanogaster genome sequence (1). There are five chromosomes (X, 2,3, 4, and Y), and the second and third together account for ∼97 Mb of the ∼120-Mb euchromatic portion of the genome. Several clone-based physical maps have been described previously. Low-resolution yeast artificial chromosome maps of the genome have been produced by polytene chromosome in situ hybridization (2), and cosmid maps of regions of theX chromosome have been made by STS content and fingerprint mapping (3). The most complete previous map is the P1-based map by Kimmerly et al. (4) [also see (5)], constructed by polymerase chain reaction-based STS content mapping and polytene chromosome in situ hybridization. On chromosomes 2 and 3, it comprises 348 sets of contiguously overlapping clones ...
TY - JOUR. T1 - Comparative CYP‐omic analysis between the DDT‐susceptible and ‐resistant Drosophila melanogaster strains 91‐C and 91‐R. AU - Seong, Keon Mook. AU - Coates, Brad S.. AU - Berenbaum, May R. AU - Clark, John M.. AU - Pittendrigh, Barry R.. PY - 2018/11. Y1 - 2018/11. N2 - BACKGROUND: Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) are involved in the biosynthesis of endogenous intracellular compounds and the metabolism of xenobiotics, including chemical insecticides. We investigated the structural and expression level variance across all P450 genes with respect to the evolution of insecticide resistance under multigenerational dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) selection. RESULTS: RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) indicated that the transcript levels of seven P450 genes were significantly up-regulated and three P450 genes were down-regulated in the DDT-resistant strain 91-R, as compared to the control strain 91-C. ...
Read Inhibition of DD2R gene expression in the corpus allatum activates alkaline phosphatase in female Drosophila melanogaster, Russian Journal of Genetics on DeepDyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips.
Drosophila males were fumigated with gaseous hydrogen fluoride in two series of experiments. In Series I, wild type Oregon-R males were treated by continuous flow of HF for 10 hours. In Series II, dp+/+b males were treated at a steady state level of HF for 9 hours. Treated and control males were crossed individually to virgin females of the genotype Pm dp b/Cy. The genetic analyses of the test generations of both series showed that homozygosity for one of the second chromosomes from a treated male resulted in a reduction in viability of the individuals which ranged from subvital to complete lethality. The viability of the controls and the heterozygous sibs was normal. These individuals of abnormal phenotypes were observed in the segregating generations. None of the crosses conducted to determine the mode of inheritance of these abnormal flies were successful. These limited studies indicate that HF may act as a mutagenic agent.. ...
TY - JOUR. T1 - Characterisation of a bis(5-nucleosyl)-tetraphosphatase (asymmetrical) from Drosophila melanogaster. AU - Winward, Lucinda. AU - Whitfield, William G. F.. AU - Woodman, Timothy J. AU - McLennan, Alexander G.. AU - Safrany, Stephen T.. PY - 2007. Y1 - 2007. N2 - The intracellular functions of diadenosine polyphosphates are still poorly defined. To understand these better, we have expressed and characterized a heat stable, 16.6kDa Nudix hydrolase (Apf) that specifically metabolizes these nucleotides from a Drosophila melanogaster cDNA. Apf always produces an NTP product, with substrate preference depending on pH and divalent ion (Zn(2+) or Mg(2+)). For example, diadenosine tetraphosphate is hydrolysed to ATP and AMP with K(m), k(cat) and k(cat)/K(m) values 9microM, 43s(-1) and 4.8microM(-1)s(-1) (pH 6.5, 0.1mMZn(2+)) and 12microM, 13s(-1) and 1.1microM(-1)s(-1) (pH 7.5, 20mMMg(2+)), respectively. However, diadenosine hexaphosphate is efficiently hydrolysed to ATP only at pH 7.5 ...
To identify genes differentially expressed in the fatbody of Drosphila melanogaster bigmax mutants, a loss-of-function allele was generated by P-element mobilization. Mutant and wildtype first instar larvae were raised on two different sources of food, control and high-sugar media. When the animals reached the wandering third instar stage, animals were sacrificed and their fat bodies dissected. Total RNA was extracted, labeled fluorescently and hybridized competitively to Agilents 4x44K Drosophila Gene Expression Microarrays. On each array, three different samples were analyzed: 1. wildtype animals raised on control food, 2. wildtype animals raised on high-sugar food and 3. bigmax mutant animals raised on high-sugar food.
TY - JOUR. T1 - Loss of Pol32 in Drosophila melanogaster causes chromosome instability and suppresses variegation. AU - Tritto, Patrizia. AU - Palumbo, Valeria. AU - Micale, Lucia. AU - Marzulli, Marco. AU - Bozzetti, Maria Pia. AU - Specchia, Valeria. AU - Palumbo, Gioacchino. AU - Pimpinelli, Sergio. AU - Berloco, Maria. PY - 2015/3/31. Y1 - 2015/3/31. N2 - Pol32 is an accessory subunit of the replicative DNA Polymerase δ and of the translesion Polymerase ζ. Pol32 is involved in DNA replication, recombination and repair. Pol32 s participation in high- and low-fidelity processes, together with the phenotypes arising from its disruption, imply multiple roles for this subunit within eukaryotic cells, not all of which have been fully elucidated. Using pol32 null mutants and two partial loss-of-function alleles pol32rd1 and pol32rds in Drosophila melanogaster, we show that Pol32 plays an essential role in promoting genome stability. Pol32 is essential to ensure DNA replication in early ...
While the genomes of hundreds of organisms have been sequenced and good approaches exist for finding protein encoding genes, an important remaining challenge is predicting the functions of the large fraction of genes for which there is no annotation. Large gene expression datasets from microarray experiments already exist and many of these can be used to help assign potential functions to these genes. We have applied Support Vector Machines (SVM), a sigmoid fitting function and a stratified cross‐validation approach to analyze a large microarray experiment dataset from Drosophila melanogaster in order to predict possible functions for previously un‐annotated genes. A total of approximately 5043 different genes, or about one‐third of the predicted genes in the D. melanogaster genome, are represented in the dataset and 1854 (or 37%) of these genes are un‐annotated. 39 Gene Ontology Biological Process (GO‐BP) categories were found with precision value equal or larger than 0.75, when recall was
Background Quantitative differences between individuals stem from a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with the heritable variation being shaped by evolutionary forces. Drosophila wing shape has emerged as an attractive system for genetic dissection of multi-dimensional traits. We utilize several experimental genetic methods to validation of the contribution of several polymorphisms in the Epidermal growth factor receptor (Egfr) gene to wing shape and size, that were previously mapped in populations of Drosophila melanogaster from North Carolina (NC) and California (CA). This re-evaluation utilized different genetic testcrosses to generate heterozygous individuals with a variety of genetic backgrounds as well as sampling of new alleles from Kenyan stocks. Results Only one variant, in the Egfr promoter, had replicable effects in all new experiments. However, expanded genotyping of the initial sample of inbred lines rendered the association non-significant in the CA population, ...
Sex-determining cascades are supposed to have evolved in a retrograde manner from bottom to top. Wilkins 1995 hypothesis finds support from our comparative studies in Drosophila melanogaster and Musca domestica, two dipteran species that separated some 120 million years ago. The sex-determining cascades in these flies differ at the level of the primary sex-determining signal and their targets, Sxl in Drosophila and F in Musca. Here we present evidence that they converge at the level of the terminal regulator, doublesex ( dsx), which conveys the selected sexual fate to the differentiation genes. The dsx homologue in Musca, Md-dsx, encodes male-specific (MdDSX(M)) and female-specific (MdDSX(F)) protein variants which correspond in structure to those in Drosophila. Sex-specific regulation of Md-dsx is controlled by the switch gene F via a splicing mechanism that is similar but in some relevant aspects different from that in Drosophila. MdDSX(F) expression can activate the vitellogenin genes in ...
Hot water extract of chlorella (WEC) increased the lifespan of superoxide dismutase (SOD)-1 mutant adults of Drosophila melanogaster in a dose dependent manner (200-800 µg/mL). Compounds in WEC were successively fractionated by solid phase extraction using a Sep-Pak C18 cartridge and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Amino compounds in SEC fractions were derivatized with. 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxylsuccinimidyl carbamate and analyzed by reversed phased-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Phenylalanine, phenethylamine, isopentylamine, and 2-methylbutylamine were identified in the SEC fraction, which increased the lifespan of the D. melanogaster mutant adults. Phenethylamine, at very low doses (6-60 ng/g of diet) that roughly corresponded to those of phenethylamine in WEC (200-800 μg/mL), increased the lifespan of the D. melanogaster adults, while isopentylamine did not exert the lifespan elongation activity. Since phenethylamine did not show SOD-like activity, it did not increase ...
Organophosphate and carbamate insecticides irreversibly inhibit acetylcholinesterase causing death of insects. Resistance-modified acetylcholinesterases(AChEs) have been described in many insect species and sequencing of their genes allowed several point mutations to be described. However, their relative frequency and their cartography had not yet been addressed. To analyze the most frequent mutations providing insecticide resistance in Drosophila melanogaster acetylcholinesterase, the Ace gene was cloned and sequenced in several strains harvested from different parts of the world. Sequence comparison revealed four widespread mutations, I161V, G265A, F330Y and G368A. We confirm here that mutations are found either isolated or in combination in the same protein and we show that most natural populations are heterogeneous, composed of a mixture of different alleles. In vitro expression of mutated proteins showed that combining mutations in the same protein has two consequences: it increases resistance
abstract = {Drosophila C virus (DCV) is a positive-sense RNA virus belonging to the Dicistroviridae family. This natural pathogen of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster is commonly used to investigate antiviral host defense in flies, which involves both RNA interference and inducible responses. Although lethality is used routinely as a readout for the efficiency of the antiviral immune response in these studies, virus-induced pathologies in flies still are poorly understood. Here, we characterize the pathogenesis associated with systemic DCV infection. Comparison of the transcriptome of flies infected with DCV or two other positive-sense RNA viruses, Flock House virus and Sindbis virus, reveals that DCV infection, unlike those of the other two viruses, represses the expression of a large number of genes. Several of these genes are expressed specifically in the midgut and also are repressed by starvation. We show that systemic DCV infection triggers a nutritional stress in Drosophila which ...
Heartbeat patterns were monitored in the living bodies of decapitated adult flies using several electrocardiographic methods (pulse-light optocardiography, thermocardiography, strain-gauge cardiography). Unlike other insect species, in which t...
Author(s): Devineni, Anita | Advisor(s): Heberlein, Ulrike | Abstract: Ethanol is one of the most widely used and abused drugs in the world. Ethanol consumption produces short-term changes in behavior as well as long-term adaptations that can lead to addiction. The mechanisms underlying both acute and chronic responses to ethanol are still not fully understood. Human and rodent studies have suggested that acute ethanol sensitivity may be related to risk of alcohol abuse, and that the same genes often regulate both types of behavior. In this thesis I have used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study the genetic and neural mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced behavior. In Chapter 2, I show that flies prefer to consume food containing ethanol and that this ethanol preference may represent a new model for studying addiction-related behavior. In Chapter 3, I examine the relationships between acute ethanol sensitivity, ethanol tolerance, and ethanol consumption preference by measuring these
Single optical section through the whole gut of a Drosophila melanogaster larva expressing a reporter for Notch signaling pathway activity (green), and stained with cytoskeletal (red) and nuclear (blue) markers ...
Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) expressed on the surface of endothelial cells is responsible for the last step in the synthesis of circulating angiotensin II and the inactivation of bradykinin. Mammalian ACE is also expressed in the prostate with other components of the renin-angiotensin system, and in developing spermatids, where the peptidase activity is known to be critical for normal sperm function. The importance of an ACE gene to male fertility has also been demonstrated in Drosophila melanogaster, where Ance is expressed in spermatids, and hypomorphic alleles of Ance cause a defect in spermiogenesis. Here we show that ANCE, which shares many enzymatic properties with mammalian ACE, is also a product of the male accessory gland of D. melanogaster. It is expressed in the secondary cells and is associated with the electron dense granule within the large vesicles of these cells. ACE proteolytic activity is lost from the accessory glands during mating, consistent with transfer to the ...
Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). Drosophila is a genus of fly from the family Drosophilidae. The species Drosophila melanogaster is known as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Drosophila melanogaster is widely used for biological research in studies of genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis, and evolution. This fly can be an agricultural or household pest. Magnification: x7. 5 when shortest axis printed at 25 millimetres. - Stock Image C032/3786
During courtship, the male Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera, Drosophilidae) produces two kinds of acoustic signals by wing vibration toward the female: the pulse song and the sine song. In order to examine the roles of these two signals, different signals were broadcast to single pairs of flies in which the males were muted by wing cutting). We used a complete song including both the pulse and the sine components, recorded during a successful courtship, to prepare different signals to play back to the flies. Thus, the natural pattern of sound emission was preserved. A preliminary experiment showed that the broadcasting of a natural complete song restored to wingless males a court- ship success comparable to that of normal winged males. A second experiment compared the effects of pulse song and sine song. The pulse song alone was sufficient to stimulate the mating between a wingless male and a virgin female. The sine song had lower effects. In a third experiment, we demonstrated that the ...
There are thousands of different species of flies. Larvae feed not on the vegetable matter itself, but on the yeasts and microorganisms present on the decaying breeding substrate. All that is needed for development is a moist film of fermenting material. The Hawaiian species of Drosophila (estimated to be more than 500, with roughly 380 species described) are sometimes recognized as a separate genus or subgenus, Idiomyia,[3][47] but this is not widely accepted. About 250 species are part of the genus Scaptomyza, which arose from the Hawaiian Drosophila and later recolonized continental areas. They are particularly fond of bananas among fruits. [24], The following section is based on the following Drosophila species: Drosophila serrata, Drosophila pseudoobscura, Drosophila melanogaster, and Drosophila neotestacea. [9] A few species have switched to being parasites or predators. The term Drosophila, meaning dew-loving, is a modern scientific Latin adaptation from Greek words δρόσος, ...
Fungi are implicated in poor indoor air quality and may pose a potential risk factor for building/mold related illnesses. Fungi emit numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as alcohols, esters, ethers, ketones, aldehydes, terpenoids, thiols, and their derivatives. The toxicity profile of these VOCs has never been explored in a model organism, which could enable the performance of high throughput toxicological assays and lead to a better understanding of the mechanism of toxicity. We have established a reductionist Drosophila melanogaster model to evaluate the toxicity of fungal VOCs. In this report, we assessed the toxicity of fungal VOCs emitted from living cultures of species in the genera, Trichoderma, Aspergillus, and Penicillium and observed a detrimental effect on larval survival. We then used chemical standards of selected fungal VOCs to assess their toxicity on larval and adult Drosophila. We compared the survival of adult flies exposed to these fungal VOCs with known industrial toxic ...
The ability of olfactory neurons to locate food sources underlies survival in most species of the animal kingdom. This ability of olfactory neurons to process environmental information is often modulated by the animals internal state such as hunger. The peripheral end of the olfactory circuit consists of first order olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), that synapse onto the second order projection neurons (PNs), and regulatory local neurons (LNs) that innervate ORNs and PNs. While a considerable amount of information has been generated, in various animal systems, regarding sensory neuron responses to food odorants and modulation of these responses by hunger, much less is known about the extent of modulation that exists among individual sensory neurons and its impact on driving behavioral output. We hypothesized that starvation differentially alters the sensitivity of individual first-order Olfactory Receptor Neurons (ORNs). To test this hypothesis, we exposed starved or non-starved third instar ...
Rhodopsins are the major photopigments in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila express six well-characterized Rhodopsins (Rh1-Rh6) with distinct absorption maxima and expression pattern. In 2000, when the Drosophila genome was published, a novel Rhodopsin gene was discovered: Rhodopsin 7 (Rh7). Rh7 is highly conserved among the Drosophila genus and is also found in other arthropods. Phylogenetic trees based on protein sequences suggest that the seven Drosophila Rhodopsins cluster in three different groups. While Rh1, Rh2 and Rh6 form a
My primary research interests are understanding the relationships of gene structure and expression during development. Using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster with which to study the genes and proteins controlling pyrimidine levels in cells, two separate and very interesting projects have emerged in recent years and are current objectives of research in my lab.. Pyrimidine degradation and neurogenesis animals. In animals, a family of structurally similar proteins have evolved from a single protein found in prokaryotes and simpler eukaryotes. The animal dihydropyrimidinase (DHP) protein carries out the ancestral enzymatic role in pydrimidine degradation, whereas the collapsin response mediator protein(s) (CRMP) mediates neuronal growth cone collapse during central nervous system development. How these protein variants evolved and the exact role of CRMP in the establishment of neuronal circuitry are poorly understood. Vertebrates have a multi-gene family that generates the distinctive ...
The fruit fly or Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a promising model organism in genetics, developmental and behavioral studies as well as in the fields of neuroscience, pharmacology, and toxicology. Not only all the developmental stages of Drosophila, including embryonic, larval, and adulthood stages, have been used in experimental in vivo biology, but also the organs, tissues, and cells extracted from this model have found applications in in vitro assays. However, the manual manipulation, cellular investigation and behavioral phenotyping techniques utilized in conventional Drosophila-based in vivo and in vitro assays are mostly time-consuming, labor-intensive, and low in throughput. Moreover, stimulation of the organism with external biological, chemical, or physical signals requires precision in signal delivery, while quantification of neural and behavioral phenotypes necessitates optical and physical accessibility to Drosophila. Recently, microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip devices have ...
Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, also known as BTEX, are released into environmental media by petroleum product exploratory and exploitative activities and are harmful to humans and animals. Testing the effects of these chemicals on a significantly large scale requires an inexpensive, rapidly developing model organism such as Drosophila melanogaster. In this study, the toxicological profile of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, p-xylene, m-xylene, and o-xylene in D. melanogaster was evaluated. Adult animals were monitored for acute toxicity effects. Similarly, first instar larvae reared separately on the same compounds were monitored for the ability to develop into adult flies (eclosion). Further, the impact of fixed concentrations of benzene and xylene on apoptosis and mitosis were investigated in adult progenitor tissues found in third instar larvae. Toluene is the most toxic to adult flies with an LC50 of 0.166 mM, while a significant and dose-dependent decrease in fly eclosion was observed
Background Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder presenting with symptoms of resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, postural instability and additional severe cognitive impairment over time. These symptoms arise from a decrease of available dopamine in the striatum of the brain resulting from the breakdown and death of dopaminergic (DA) neurons. A process implicated in the destruction of these neurons is mitochondrial breakdown and impairment. Upkeep and repair of mitochondria involves a number of complex and key components including Pink1, Parkin, and the PGC family of genes. PGC-1α has been characterized as a regulator of mitochondria biogenesis, insulin receptor signalling and energy metabolism, mutation of this gene has been linked to early onset forms of PD. The mammalian PGC family consists of three partially redundant genes making the study of full or partial loss of function difficult. The sole Drosophila melanogaster homologue of this gene family, spargel ...
The fruitless (fru) gene is a member of the Drosophila melanogaster somatic sex determination genetic pathway. Although it has been hypothesized that the primary function of fru is to regulate a genetic hierarchy specifying development of adult male courtship behavior, genes acting downstream of fru …
The ability to identify nutrient-rich food and avoid toxic substances is essential for an animals survival. Although olfaction and vision contribute to food detection, the gustatory system acts as a final checkpoint control for food acceptance or rejection. The vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster tastes many of the same stimuli as mammals and provides an excellent model system for comparative studies of taste detection. The relative simplicity of the fly brain and behaviors, along with the molecular genetic and functional approaches available in this system, allow the examination of gustatory neural circuits from sensory input to motor output. This review discusses the molecules and cells that detect taste compounds in the periphery and the circuits that process taste information in the brain. These studies are providing insight into how the detection of taste compounds regulates feeding decisions.. PMID: 29324046 [PubMed - in process]. ...
The standard view of adaptation to larval crowding in fruitflies, built on results from 25 years of multiple experimental evolution studies on Drosophila melanogaster, was that enhanced competitive ability evolves primarily through increased larval feeding and foraging rate, and increased larval tolerance to nitrogenous wastes, at the cost of efficiency of food conversion to biomass. These results were at odds from the predictions of classical K-selection theory, notably the expectation that selection at high density should result in the increase of efficiency of conversion of food to biomass, and were better interpreted through the lens of α-selection. We show here that populations of D. ananassae and D. n. nasuta subjected to extreme larval crowding evolve greater competitive ability and pre-adult survivorship at high density, primarily through a combination of reduced larval duration, faster attainment of minimum critical size for pupation, greater time efficiency of food conversion to ...
Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) on old fruit. D. melanogaster is a small, common fly found near unripe and rotted fruit. It has been in use for over a century to study genetics. Nobel Laureate Thomas Hunt Morgan was the pre-eminent biologist studying Drosophila early in the 1900s. Morgan was the first to discover sex-linkage and genetic recombination, which placed the small fly in the forefront of genetic research. Due to its small size, ease of culture and short generation time, geneticists have been using Drosophila ever since. It is one of the few organisms whose entire genome is known, and many genes have been identified and numerous mutuations produced during the research. - Stock Video Clip K003/2041