Search results for "Drosophila Melanogaster"

Luminance Information Is Required for the Accurate Estimation of Contrast in Rapidly Changing Visual Contexts.

2020

Summary Visual perception scales with changes in the visual stimulus, or contrast, irrespective of background illumination. However, visual perception is challenged when adaptation is not fast enough to deal with sudden declines in overall illumination, for example, when gaze follows a moving object from bright sunlight into a shaded area. Here, we show that the visual system of the fly employs a solution by propagating a corrective luminance-sensitive signal. We use in vivo 2-photon imaging and behavioral analyses to demonstrate that distinct OFF-pathway inputs encode contrast and luminance. Predictions of contrast-sensitive neuronal responses show that contrast information alone cannot ex…

Drosophila and humans share similar mechanisms of insulin secretion

2017

Drosophila and humans share similar mechanisms of insulin secretion

2018

Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are ubiquitous key enzymes that catalyse the conjugation of glutathione to xenobiotic compounds in the detoxification process. GSTs have been proposed to play a dual role in the signal termination of insect chemodetection by modifying odorant and tasting molecules and by protecting the chemosensory system. Among the 40 GSTs identified in Drosophila melanogaster, the Delta and Epsilon groups are insect-specific. GSTs Delta and Epsilon may have evolved to serve in detoxification, and have been associated with insecticide resistance. Here, we report the heterologous expression and purification of the D. melanogaster GST Delta 2 (GSTD2). We investigated the capac…

2020

Cuticle barrier efficiency in insects depends largely on cuticular lipids. To learn about the evolution of cuticle barrier function, we compared the basic properties of the cuticle inward and outward barrier function in adults of the fruit flies Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster that live on fruits sharing a similar habitat. At low air humidity, D. suzukii flies desiccate faster than D. melanogaster flies. We observed a general trend indicating that in this respect males are less robust than females in both species. Xenobiotics penetration occurs at lower temperatures in D. suzukii than in D. melanogaster. Likewise, D. suzukii flies are more susceptible to contact insecticides …

The developmental proteome of Drosophila melanogaster

2017

Drosophila melanogaster is a widely used genetic model organism in developmental biology. While this model organism has been intensively studied at the RNA level, a comprehensive proteomic study covering the complete life cycle is still missing. Here, we apply label-free quantitative proteomics to explore proteome remodeling across Drosophila’s life cycle, resulting in 7952 proteins, and provide a high temporal-resolved embryogenesis proteome of 5458 proteins. Our proteome data enabled us to monitor isoform-specific expression of 34 genes during development, to identify the pseudogene Cyp9f3Ψ as a protein-coding gene, and to obtain evidence of 268 small proteins. Moreover, the comparison wi…

2018

Abstract The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “Characterization of a Drosophila glutathione transferase involved in isothiocyanate detoxification.” (Gonzalez et al., 2018) [1] . This article includes the expression level of Drosophila melanogaster GSTE1 and GSTE7 in chemosensory male tissues and the expression level of the mRNAs coding for the same enzymes after a PEITC exposure in food.

Pre-imaginal conditioning alters adult sex pheromone response in Drosophila

2018

https://peerj.com/articles/5585/#supplemental-information; International audience; Pheromones are chemical signals that induce innate responses in individuals of the same species that may vary with physiological and developmental state. In Drosophila melanogaster, the most intensively studied pheromone is 11-cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA), which is synthezised in the male ejaculatory bulb and is transferred to the female during copulation. Among other effects, cVA inhibits male courtship of mated females. We found that male courtship inhibition depends on the amount of cVA and this effect is reduced in male flies derived from eggs covered with low to zero levels of cVA. This effect is not obser…

MECP2 impairs neuronal structure by regulating KIBRA

2016

Using a Drosophila model of MECP2 gain-of-function, we identified memory associated KIBRA as a target of MECP2 in regulating dendritic growth. We found that expression of human MECP2 increased kibra expression in Drosophila, and targeted RNAi knockdown of kibra in identified neurons fully rescued dendritic defects as induced by MECP2 gain-of-function. Validation in mouse confirmed that Kibra is similarly regulated by Mecp2 in a mammalian system. We found that Mecp2 gain-of-function in cultured mouse cortical neurons caused dendritic impairments and increased Kibra levels. Accordingly, Mecp2 loss-of-function in vivo led to decreased Kibra levels in hippocampus, cortex, and cerebellum. Togeth…

2021

Circadian clocks prepare the organism to cyclic environmental changes in light, temperature, or food availability. Here, we characterized the master clock in the brain of a strongly photoperiodic insect, the aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum, immunohistochemically with antibodies against A. pisum Period (PER), Drosophila melanogaster Cryptochrome (CRY1), and crab Pigment-Dispersing Hormone (PDH). The latter antibody detects all so far known PDHs and PDFs (Pigment-Dispersing Factors), which play a dominant role in the circadian system of many arthropods. We found that, under long days, PER and CRY are expressed in a rhythmic manner in three regions of the brain: the dorsal and lateral protocerebrum …

Quantitative Assessment of Eye Phenotypes for Functional Genetic Studies Using Drosophila melanogaster

2016

AbstractAbout two-thirds of the vital genes in the Drosophila genome are involved in eye development, making the fly eye an excellent genetic system to study cellular function and development, neurodevelopment/degeneration, and complex diseases such as cancer and diabetes. We developed a novel computational method, implemented as Flynotyper software (http://flynotyper.sourceforge.net), to quantitatively assess the morphological defects in the Drosophila eye resulting from genetic alterations affecting basic cellular and developmental processes. Flynotyper utilizes a series of image processing operations to automatically detect the fly eye and the individual ommatidium, and calculates a phen…