Insulin stimulates translocation of human GLUT4 to the membrane in fat bodies of transgenic Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is an excellent model system for studies of genes controlling development and disease. However, its applicability to physiological systems is less clear because of metabolic differences between insects and mammals. Insulin signaling has been studied in mammals because of relevance to diabetes and other diseases but there are many parallels between mammalian and insect pathways. For example, deletion of Drosophila Insulin-Like Peptides resulted in 'diabetic' flies with elevated circulating sugar levels. Whether this situation reflects failure of sugar uptake into peripheral tissues as seen in mammals is unclear and depends upon whether flies harbor the machinery to mount mammalian-like insulin-dependent sugar uptake responses. Here we asked whether Dros

SUBMITTER: Crivat G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3819322 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature