Project description:Mitochondrial dysfunction causes biophysical, metabolic and signalling changes that alter homeostasis and reprogram cells. We used a Drosophila model in which TFAM is overexpressed in the nervous system with or without Ras/MAPK pathway inhibition, by knock-down of the ETS transcription factor pointed, to investigate the how mitochondrial dysfunction and Ras/MAPK signalling affect the transcriptome. We used microarray analysis to investigate gene expression in cases of mitochondrial dysfunction in the CNS with or without Ras/MAPK pathway inhibition by knock-down of pointed (Pnt) and anterior open (Aop).
Project description:Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes essential components of the respiratory chain and loss of mtDNA leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and neurodegeneration. Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) is an essential component of mtDNA replication and a regulator of mitochondrial copy number in cells. Studies have shown that TFAM knockdown leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and respiratory chain deficiencies. Using gene expression analysis, we aimed to investigate the effects of mtDNA dysfunction in the CNS at the molecular level. We used microarray analysis to investigate gene expression in cases of mitochondrial dysfunction in the CNS. RNA was purified from the late third instar larval CNS from control larvae, or larvae over-expressing mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) in post-mitotic neurons using the neuron specific driver nsyb-Gal4. Three replicates are included for each condition.
Project description:Mitochondrial dysfunction causes biophysical, metabolic and signalling changes that alter homeostasis and reprogram cells. We used a Drosophila model in which individual subunits of 4 OXPHOS complexes are knocked-down in neurons in the larval CNS. We used microarray analysis to investigate gene expression changes caused by knock down of OXPHOS subunits of complexes I, III, IV and V in neurons.
Project description:<p>Chronic sleep loss profoundly impacts metabolic health and shortens lifespan, but studies of the mechanisms involved have focused largely on acute sleep deprivation. To identify metabolic consequences of chronically reduced sleep, we conducted unbiased metabolomics on heads of three adult Drosophila short-sleeping mutants with very different mechanisms of sleep loss: fumin (fmn), redeye (rye), and sleepless (sss). Common features included elevated ornithine and polyamines, with lipid, acyl-carnitine, and TCA cycle changes suggesting mitochondrial dysfunction. Studies of excretion demonstrate inefficient nitrogen elimination in adult sleep mutants, likely contributing to their polyamine accumulation. Increasing levels of polyamines, particularly putrescine, promote sleep in control flies but poison sleep mutants. This parallels the broadly enhanced toxicity of high dietary nitrogen load from protein in chronically sleep-restricted Drosophila, including both sleep mutants and flies with hyper-activated wake-promoting neurons. Together, our results implicate nitrogen stress as a novel mechanism linking chronic sleep loss to adverse health outcomes-and perhaps for linking food and sleep homeostasis at the cellular level in healthy organisms.</p>
Project description:To understand gene expression changes in different regions of the Drosophila brain with age, we performed RNAseq different regions of the adult drosophila CNS at different ages.
