Post-eclosion decline in ‘knock-down’ thermal resistance and reduced effect of heat hardening in Drosophila melanogaster

AbstractThe transcription factor Odd-skipped has been implicated in many developmental processes in Drosophila melanogaster. Odd-skipped is expressed in a small cluster of neurons (Slater, Levy et al.) in the developing and adult CNS but its role in neurogenesis has so far not been addressed. Here we show that Odd-skipped plays a pivotal role in neurite growth and arborization during development. Loss-of-Odd-skipped function prevents neurite outgrowth whereas over and miss-expression causes neurite growth and arborization defects. In addition, miss-expression of Odd-skipped can induce cell death in some neural sub types. The neurite growth and arborization defects associated with Odd-skipped over expression correlates with a reduction in the pre-synaptically targeted protein Bruchpilot in axonal arbours suggesting an overall decrease in Odd neural synapse formation. This is supported by behavioural data showing that larvae in which Odd-skipped is overexpressed behave similarly to larvae in which Odd neurons are silenced showing that increasing Odd-skipped protein levels affect neural function. Finally, we demonstrate that using RNAi against Odd-skipped does not knock down Odd-skipped protein but instead cause an increase in protein levels compared to control larvae. This data demonstrates that RNAi can cause up-regulation of protein levels highlighting the importance of verifying protein levels when using RNAi approaches for knock-down.

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Inositol synthesis gene is required for circadian rhythm of Drosophila melanogaster mating behavior

10.1101/2020.02.19.955583 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kazuki Sakata ◽

Haruhisa Kawasaki ◽

Norio Ishida

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Drosophila Melanogaster ◽

Circadian Rhythm ◽

Circadian Clock ◽

Mating Behavior ◽

Rhythm Generation ◽

Locomotor Rhythm ◽

Inositol 1 ◽

Knock Down ◽

Close Proximity

AbstractAccumulating evidence indicates that the molecular circadian clock underlies the mating behavior of Drosophila melanogaster. However, information about which gene affects circadian mating behavior is poorly understood in animals. The present study found that feeding Myo-inositol enhanced the close-proximity (CP) rhythm of D. melanogaster mating behavior and lengthened the period of the CP rhythm. Then, to understand a role for inositol synthesis to fly mating behavior, we established the Inos (Myo-inositol 1-phosphate synthase) gene knock down fly strains with RNAi. Interestingly, the CP behavior of this three-different driver knock down strains was arrhythmic, but the locomotor rhythm was rhythmic. The data of three-different Inos knock down strains suggests that Inos gene expression of upper LNd, l-LNV, 5ths-LNv in brain is necessary for proper CP rhythm generation in D. melanogaster. The data indicated that the Inos gene is involved in the role for the circadian rhythm of D. melanogaster mating behavior.

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