X-Nico

3 unusual facts about drosophila


MFN1

This protein and mitofusin 2 are homologs of the Drosophila protein fuzzy onion (Fzo).

Nurse cell

In fruit flies (Drosophila), nurse cells surround the developing oocyte and synthesize proteins and RNAs that are to be deposited in it.

Phage group

Delbrück was unimpressed with Morgan's experimentally complex model organism Drosophila, but another researcher, Emory Ellis, was working with the more elementary phage.


Behavior mutation

Raymond B. Huey and his colleagues used the same MA lines method, suggesting that mutation accumulation in Drosophila melanogaster significantly depresses only some behavioural traits.

Cyclin A

A single cyclin A gene has been identified in Drosophila while Xenopus, mice and humans contain two distinct types of cyclin A: A1, the embryonic-specific form, and A2, the somatic form.

Directed mutagenesis

Richard Goldschmidt in 1929 due to his experiments on drosophila through exposure to elevated temperatures had claimed to have produced evidence for directed mutation.

Drosophila hybrid sterility

For instance, infections of nematodes or of arthropods, including Drosophila, species of the rickettsial bacteria Wolbachia can produce a male-specific sterility, which is congenital by means of transmission through the female line.

Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup

The Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup contains 9 species, including the best known species Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans.

Drosophila persimilis

Drosophila persimilis is a species of fruit fly that is a sister species to D. pseudoobscura, and was one of 12 fruitfly genomes sequenced for a large comparative study.

Drosophilidae

More extensive identification characteristics can be found in "Drosophila: A Guide to Species Identification and Use" by Therese A. Markow and Patrick O'Grady, (Academic Press, 2005) ISBN 0-12-473052-3 or "Drosophila: A Laboratory Handbook" by M. Ashburner, K. Golic, S. Hawley, (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2005).

DSS1/SEM1 protein family

In molecular biology, the DSS1/SEM1 protein family is a family of short acidic proteins which includes the 26S proteasome complex subunits SEM1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila and DSS1 (SHFM1) in mammals.

ETS transcription factor family

There are 29 genes in humans, 28 in the mouse, 10 in Caenorhabditis elegans and 9 in Drosophila.

GLI2

The protein encoded by this gene localizes to the cytoplasm and activates patched Drosophila homolog (PTCH) gene expression.

GLI3

The protein encoded by this gene localizes in the cytoplasm and activates patched Drosophila homolog (PTCH1) gene expression.

Heat shock protein

In 1962, Italian geneticist Ferruccio Ritossa reported that heat and the metabolic uncoupler 2,4-dinitrophenol induced a characteristic pattern of puffing in the chromosomes of Drosophila.

Hsromega

The hsrω-n transcript directly or indirectly affects the localization/stability/activity of a variety of proteins including hnRNPs, Sxl, Hsp83, cAMP response element binding binding protein (CBP), Drosophila inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 (DIAP1), JNK-signalling members, proteasome constituents, lamin C, ISWI, HP1 and poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase.

Huntington's disease clinical research

Genetically-engineered intracellular antibody fragments called intrabodies have shown therapeutic results in fruit fly models, by inhibiting mHtt aggregation using an intrabody which binds to the end of mHtt within a cell.

KaiC

Using bacterial luciferase as a reporter for gene expression, studies have shown that, similar to Drosophila, mouse, and Neurospora clock models, the Synechococcus circadian clock is based on a negative feedback loop.

Larry Sandler

Scott Hawley, "Meiosis as an "M"Thing: Twenty-Five Years of Meiotic Mutants in Drosophila", Genetics (1993)

McDonald–Kreitman test

In 1991, John H. McDonald and Martin Kreitman derived the McDonald–Kreitman test while performing an experiment with Drosophila (fruit flies) and their differences in amino acid sequence of the alcohol dehydrogenase gene.

Metafemale

American geneticist Calvin Bridges, who discovered the genic balance sex-determination system in Drosophila in 1921, used the terms "superfemale" and "supermale".

Morphogen

This model was championed by the leading Drosophila biologist, Peter Lawrence.

Nuage

They are found in nurse cells of the developing Drosophila melanogaster egg chamber and are composed of various types of proteins, including RNA-helicases, Tudor domain proteins, Piwi-clade Argonaute proteins, in addition to a PRMT5 methylosome composed of Capsuléen and its co-factor, Valois (MEP50).

Oscillating gene

Clock- The clock gene in Drosophila encodes for the CLOCK protein and forms a heterodimer with the protein CYCLE in order to control the main oscillating activity of the circadian clock.

Polo kinase

Examples and other names in common use include Cdc5, Cdc5p, Plk, PLK, Plk1, Plo1, POLO kinase, polo serine-threonine kinase, polo-like kinase, polo-like kinase 1, serine/threonine-specific Drosophila kinase polo, and STK21.

RDE-1

The rde-1 gene locus was first characterized in C. elegans mutants resistant to RNAi, and is a member of a highly conserved Piwi gene family that includes plant, Drosophila, and vertebrate homologs.

Sevenless

Sevenless (sev) is a gene in Drosophila melanogaster that encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase protein essential to the development of R7 cells in the Drosophila embryonic eye.

Soft rot

Pichia heedii, the soft rot of the cacti Lophocereus schottii and Drosophila pachea

Steganinae

See for a discussion on this subfamily "Drosophila: A Laboratory Handbook" by M. Ashburner, S. Hawley, K. Golic (not reproduced here due to copyrights).

Suprachiasmatic nucleus

CLOCK (circadian locomotor output cycles kaput) was first cloned in mouse and BMAL1 (brain and muscle aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT)-like 1) is the primary homolog of Drosophila CYC.

Voltinism

Yet other species that live in tropical regions with little seasonality may be highly multivoltine, with several generations feeding on constantly growing vegetation (such as some species of Saturniidae or continually renewed detritus, such as Drosophila and many other genera of flies with a life cycle of just a week or two.


see also