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Full Abstracts – PLENARY SESSION I
116
3D video tracking of Drosophila behavior and GFP expression and predictive biomarkers of aging.
John Tower, Gary Landis, Reza Ardekani, Simon
Tavaré. Molecular and Computational Biology Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Evolutionary theory suggests that aging results from antagonistic pleiotropy of gene function between developmental stages and the sexes; uni-parental
inheritance of the mitochondrial genome may make mitochondria-related genes particularly subject to sexual antagonistic pleiotropy (SAP), and contribute
to mitochondrial malfunction, oxidative stress and proteotoxicity during aging. We find that
p53
and the mitochondrial redox-regulator
MnSOD
have sex-
specific effects on life span consistent with SAP. Oxidative stress-response genes including
Hsp22
,
Hsp70
, and
Drosomycin
are up-regulated during normal
aging, suggesting they are responding to age-related mitochondrial malfunction. Both MnSOD and Hsp22 can increase
Hsp22
expression during aging,
suggesting an auto-regulatory pathway. Predictive biomarkers of aging would facilitate further analysis of aging mechanisms, but this requires non-invasive
assays. Implementation of 3D tracking and GFP quantification has been hindered in the past by the complexity of operating systems. We report development
of a user-friendly system (called Fluorescore) based on two synchronized cameras and recorded videos. Fluorescore quantifies fluorescent reporter proteins
in groups of free moving flies, and provides 3D movement patterns with simultaneous fluorescence quantification for single flies. Longitudinal assay of
fluorescent reporter constructs in young adult flies revealed that the oxidative-stress response genes
Hsp22
,
Hsp70
, and
Drosomycin
are predictive
biomarkers of life span.
The Neurobiology of Monarch Butterfly Migration.
Steven Reppert. UMass Medical School, Worcester, MA.
Studies of the migration of the monarch butterfly have revealed neural mechanisms behind its navigation using a time-compensated sun compass. Skylight
cues, such as the sun itself and polarized light, are processed through both eyes and integrated in the brain’s central complex, the presumed site of the sun
compass. Time compensation is provided by circadian clocks that have a distinct molecular mechanism and that reside in the antennae. The monarch genome
has revealed a full set of protein-coding genes, which yield insights into the long-distance migration. Gene targeting approaches are being developed to
manipulate putative migration genes. The monarch butterfly is an outstanding system to study the molecular and neural basis of long-distance migration.