Project description:Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) are vital in determining the specificity of translation. Mutations in tRNAs can result in the mis-incorporation of amino acids into nascent polypeptides in a process known as mistranslation. Here, our goal was to test the impacts of different types of mistranslation in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, as impact of mistranslation depends on the type of amino acid substitution. We created two fly lines - one expressing a serine tRNA variant with valine anticodon and the other with a serine tRNA variant with a threonine anticodon. Using mass spectrometry, we measure the amount of mistranslation at various points in fly development.
Project description:Dietary amino acids restriction extends lifespan in diverse species ranging from flies to mammals. The evolutionarily conserved serine/threonine kinase General Control Nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) is a key sensor of amino acid deficiency and has been implicated in lifespan regulation upon dietary restriction. However, the role of individual essential amino acids (EAA) in modulating organismal lifespan and the underlying molecular mechanisms through which EAA mediate these effects are only partially understood. We generated a novel Drosophila GCN2 null mutant and systematically analyzed its response to individual amino acid deficiency.
Project description:Temperature reduction has been one of the most robust environmental manipulations used to increase lifespan in invertebrates. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms leading to temperature-mediated lifespan extension remains largely unknown. Here, we evaluate how genes and metabolites are altered in response to changes in temperature in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Our data show that environmental temperature affects transcriptome much more than the metabolome. Intriguingly, the most affected candidate genes, the Turandot (tot) family genes, have direct effects on longevity in flies. Specifically, knockdown of tot expression at all temperatures leads to lifespan extension in a sex-specific fashion. Overall, our results imply that individual genes, specifically, the Turandot family of genes that may play a novel role in lifespan regulation in the fruit fly.
Project description:Drosophila melanogaster is a well-studied genetic model organism with several large-scale transcriptome resources. Here we investigate 7,952 proteins during the fly life cycle from embryo to adult and also provide a high-resolution temporal time course proteome of 5,458 proteins during embryogenesis. We use our large scale data set to compare transcript/protein expression, uncovering examples of extreme differences between mRNA and protein abundance. In the embryogenesis proteome, the time delay in protein synthesis after transcript expression was determined. For some proteins, including the transcription factor lola, we monitor isoform specific expression levels during early fly development. Furthermore, we obtained firm evidence of 268 small proteins, which are hard to predict by bioinformatics. We observe peptides originating from non-coding regions of the genome and identified Cyp9f3psi as a protein-coding gene. As a powerful resource to the community, we additionally created an interactive web interface (http://www.butterlab.org) advancing the access to our data.
Project description:we performed proteome sequencing in Drosophila at day 7 (young) and day 42 (old) under dietary restriction (DR)and ad libitum (AL) conditions.