Project description:Nucleus is a highly structured organelle and contains many functional compartments. While the structural basis for this complex spatial organization of compartments is unknown, a major component of this organization is likely to be the non-chromatin scaffolding called nuclear matrix (NuMat). Experimental evidence over the past decades indicates that most of the nuclear functions are at least transiently associated with the NuMat although the components of NuMat itself are poorly known. Here, we report NuMat proteome analysis from Drosophila melanogaster embryos and discuss its links with nuclear architecture and functions. In the NuMat proteome, we find structural proteins, chaperones related, DNA/RNA binding, chromatin remodeling and transcription factors. This complexity of NuMat proteome is an indicator of its structural and functional significance. Comparison of the 2D profile of NuMat proteome from different developmental stages of Drosophila embryos shows that less than half of the NuMat proteome is constant and rest of the proteins are stage specific dynamic components. This NuMat dynamics suggests a possible functional link between NuMat and the embryonic development. Finally, we also show that a subset of NuMat proteins remain associated with the mitotic chromosomes implicating their role in mitosis and possibly the epigenetic cellular memory. NuMat proteome analysis provides tools and opens up ways to understand nuclear organization and function.
Project description:Understanding the genotype-phenotype map and how variation at different levels of biological organization is associated are central topics in modern biology. Fast developments in sequencing technologies and other molecular omic tools enable researchers to obtain detailed information on variation at DNA level and on intermediate endophenotypes, such as RNA, proteins and metabolites. This can facilitate our understanding of the link between genotypes and molecular and functional organismal phenotypes. Here, we use the Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics to investigate the ability of the metabolome to predict organismal phenotypes. We performed NMR metabolomics on four replicate pools of male flies from each of 170 different isogenic lines. Our results show that metabolite profiles are variable among the investigated lines and that this variation is highly heritable. Second, we identify genes associated with metabolome variation. Third, using the metabolome gave better prediction accuracies than genomic information for four of five quantitative traits analyzed. Our comprehensive characterization of population-scale diversity of metabolomes and its genetic basis illustrates that metabolites have large potential as predictors of organismal phenotypes. This finding is of great importance, e.g., in human medicine, evolutionary biology and animal and plant breeding.
Project description:Thermal acclimation study on Drosophila melanogaster reared at 3 different temperatures (12, 25, and 31oC). The proteomic profiles of D. melanogaster under these different temperatures were analyzed and compared using label-free tandem mass spectrometry.
Project description:In Drosophila melanogaster larval hemolymph, under normal conditions, plasmatocytes and crystal cells represent respectively ~95% and ~5% of hemocytes, while lamellocytes, the third larval cell type, are absent since they are only induced after parasitoid wasp oviposition, their role being the encapsulation-melanization response to eliminate the wasp egg. However, even after induction lamellocytes number remains low, making difficult biochemical studies. Here using the D. melanogaster hopTum-l mutant that constitutively produces a high number of hemocytes, we set up a method to purify lamellocytes and analyzed their major proteins by 2D gel electrophoresis and their biotinylated plasma membrane surface proteins by 1D SDS-PAGE after affinity purification. Mass spectrometry allowed to identify 430 proteins from the 2D spots and 344 from affinity purified proteins, totalizing 639 unique proteins. Known lamellocyte markers such as PPO3 and the integrin myospheroid are among the major proteins and affinity purification led to the detection of other integrins and a large array of integrins associated proteins involved in cell-cell junction formation and function. Overall newly identified proteins indicated that these cells are highly adapted to the encapsulation process but may have also several different physiological functions. This study provides the basis for new lamellocyte studies in vivo and in vitro, and develop markers to search whether different populations coexist, establish their origins and decipher their respective roles in drosophila physiology and immunity.