An in vivo functional analysis system for renal gene discovery in Drosophila pericardial nephrocytes.

ABSTRACT: The difficulty in accessing mammalian nephrons in vivo hinders the study of podocyte biology. The Drosophila nephrocyte shares remarkable similarities to the glomerular podocyte, but the lack of a functional readout for nephrocytes makes it challenging to study this model of the podocyte, which could potentially harness the power of Drosophila genetics. Here, we present a functional analysis of nephrocytes and establish an in vivo system to screen for renal genes. We found that nephrocytes efficiently take up secreted fluorescent protein, and therefore, we generated a transgenic line carrying secreted fluorescent protein and combined it with a nephrocyte-specific driver for targeted gene knockdown, allowing the identification of genes required for nephrocyte function. To validate this syst

SUBMITTER: Zhang F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3559487 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature