Search results for "Drosophila melanogaster"
showing 10 items of 426 documents
A computational model for motor learning in insects
2013
The aim of this paper is to propose a computational model, inspired by Drosophila melanogaster, able to handle problems related to motor learning. The role of the Mushroom Bodies and the Central Complex in solving this problem is analyzed and plausible biologically inspired models are proposed. The designed computational models have been evaluated in simulation using a dynamic structure inspired by the fruit fly. The obtained results open the way to new neurobiological experiments focused to better understand the underlined mechanisms involved, to verify the feasibility of the hypotheses formulated and the significance of the obtained results.
Reverse-engineering post-transcriptional regulation of gap genes in Drosophila melanogaster
2013
16 páginas, 6 figuras, 1 tabla
The histone deacetylase Rpd3 regulates the heterochromatin structure of Drosophila telomeres
2011
Telomeres are specialized structures at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes that are required to preserve genome integrity, chromosome stability and nuclear architecture. Telomere maintenance and function are established epigenetically in several eukaryotes. However, the exact chromatin enzymatic modifications regulating telomere homeostasis are poorly understood. In Drosophila melanogaster, telomere length and stability are maintained through the retrotransposition of specialized telomeric sequences and by the specific loading of protecting capping proteins, respectively. Here, we show that the loss of the essential and evolutionarily conserved histone deacetylase Rpd3, the homolog of mammal…
Transcriptional Activity and Nuclear Localization of Cabut, the Drosophila Ortholog of Vertebrate TGF-β-Inducible Early-Response Gene (TIEG) Proteins
2011
Background Cabut (Cbt) is a C2H2-class zinc finger transcription factor involved in embryonic dorsal closure, epithelial regeneration and other developmental processes in Drosophila melanogaster. Cbt orthologs have been identified in other Drosophila species and insects as well as in vertebrates. Indeed, Cbt is the Drosophila ortholog of the group of vertebrate proteins encoded by the TGF-s-inducible early-response genes (TIEGs), which belong to Sp1-like/Kruppel-like family of transcription factors. Several functional domains involved in transcriptional control and subcellular localization have been identified in the vertebrate TIEGs. However, little is known of whether these domains and fu…
RNA memory model: a RNA-mediated transcriptional activation mechanism involved in cell identity.
2010
Position-effect variegation (PEV) was discovered in Drosophila melanogaster in 1930 in a study of X-ray-induced chromosomal rearrangements. If a rearrangement places euchromatic genes adjacent to a region of centromeric heterochromatin, it gives a variegated phenotype that results from the random inactivation of genes by heterochromatin spreading from the breakpoint. After the establishment, the inactivation is henceforth clonally inherited. The vast majority of these modifiers were originally isolated in Drosophila as dominant mutations that suppressed or enhanced the variegation caused by a variegating white allele called white-mottled 4 (wm4). A large number of modifier genes alter PEV p…
Heterogeneity in the response of different subtypes of Drosophila melanogaster enteroendocrine cells to viral infections
2020
SummarySingle cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) offers the possibility to monitor both host and pathogens transcriptomes at the cellular level. Here, public scRNA-seq data from Drosophila melanogaster have been used to compare the differences in replication strategy and cellular response between two viruses, Thika virus (TV) and D. melanogaster Nora virus (DMelNV) in enteroendocrine cells (EEs). TV and DMelNV exhibited different patterns of replication and for TV, accumulation varied according to cell subtype. Cells infected with TV underwent down-regulation of genes that represent bottlenecks in the fruit fly interactome, while cells infected with DMelNV went through a down-expression of tra…
Overexpression of Human and Fly Frataxins in Drosophila Provokes Deleterious Effects at Biochemical, Physiological and Developmental Levels
2011
10 pages, 5 figures. 21779322[PubMed] PMCID: PMC3136927
Aberrant splicing of the Drosophila melanogaster phenylalanine hydroxylase pre-mRNA caused by the insertion of a B104/roo transposable element in the…
1999
Abstract We report the insertion of the transposable element B104 in the Phenylalanine hydroxylase gene of the Drosophila mutant Henna-recessive 3 . Its presence alters the Phenylalanine hydroxylase splicing pattern, producing at least two aberrant mRNAs which contain part of the B104 sequence interrupting the coding region. This aberrant splicing is provoked by the use of a cryptic donor site encoded by the B104 3′ long terminal repeat in combination with either the gene intron 3 acceptor site or a novel acceptor site generated by the target duplication caused by transposition. One of them, referred as mRNA type 1, encodes a truncated protein that could be predictably non-functional. In mR…
Retrotransposon silencing and telomere integrity in somatic cells of Drosophila depends on the cytosine-5 methyltransferase DNMT2
2009
Here we show that the cytosine-5 methyltransferase DNMT2 controls retrotransposon silencing in Drosophila somatic cells. In Drosophila, significant DNMT2-dependent DNA methylation occurs during early embryogenesis. Suppression of white gene silencing by Mt2 (Dnmt2) null mutations in variegated P[w(+)] element insertions identified functional targets of DNMT2. The enzyme controls DNA methylation at retrotransposons in early embryos and initiates histone H4K20 trimethylation catalyzed by the SUV4-20 methyltransferase. In somatic cells, loss of DNMT2 eliminates H4K20 trimethylation at retrotransposons and impairs maintenance of retrotransposon silencing. In Dnmt2 and Suv4-20 null genotypes, re…
Invasion of thehobo transposable element studied byin situ hybridization on polytene chromosomes ofDrosophila melanogaster
1994
The invasion kinetics of hobo transposable element in the Drosophila melanogaster genome was studied by in situ hybridization on the polytene chromosomes. Six independent lines of Drosophila melanogaster flies that had been previously transformed by microinjection of the pHFL1 plasmid containing a complete hobo element were followed over 50 generations. We observed that hobo elements were scattered on each of the chromosome arms, with more insertion sites on the 3R arm. The total number of insertion sites remains quite small, between four and six, at generation 52. On the 2R arm, a short inversion appeared once at generation 52. Most of the integration sites reported here were already descr…