Project description:Genes with sex-biased expression in adults experience unique evolutionary dynamics. It is unclear, however, whether the selection pressures responsible for these well documented patterns also act upon genes with sex-biased expression in other developmental stages. To examine this, we measured expression in male and female Drosophila melanogaster larvae.
Project description:Drosophila melanogaster larvae reared on isocaloric diets with different protein/sugar ratios, exhibit different developmental times and the eclosed adults show different metabolite pools of glycogen and triglycerides (Matzkin et al., 2011, PMID: 21525254). To investigate the effect of larval diet on adult neurological processes at the gene expression level we performed high throughout RNA sequencing of fly heads reared in two different protein/sugar ratio diets.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of 3 day old virgin male and female adults comparing control male Drosophila melanogaster (MDM) versus male D sechellia (MDS) and comparing control female Drosophila melanogaster (FDM) versus female D sechellia (FDS). Goal was to determine why D sechellia is tolerant to octanoïc acid, the major toxic compound of Morinda citrifolia fruit
Project description:Gene expression levels were determined in 3rd instar and adult Drosophila melanogaster reared during spaceflight, to elucidate the genetic and molecular mechanisms underpinning the effects of microgravity on the immune system. The goal was to validate the Drosophila model for understanding alterations of innate immune responses in humans due to spaceflight. Five containers of flies, with ten female and five male fruit flies in each container, were housed and bred on the space shuttle (average orbit altitude of 330.35 km) for 12 days and 18.5 hours, with a new generation reared in microgravity. RNA was extracted on the day of shuttle landing from whole body animals (3rd instar larvae and adults), hybridized to Drosophila 2.0 Affymetrix genome arrays, and the expression level of all genes was normalized against the gene expression level from the corresponding developmental stage animals raised on ground. Spaceflight altered the expression of larval genes involved in the maturation of plasmatocytes (macrophages) and their phagocytic response, as well as the level of constitutive expression of pattern recognition receptors and opsonins that specifically recognize bacteria, and of lysozymes, antimicrobial peptide pathway and immune stress genes, hallmarks of humoral immunity.