Dilp8 requires the neuronal relaxin receptor Lgr3 to couple growth to developmental timing

We thank C. Mirth, C. Ribeiro and A. Jacinto for their comments and suggestions; I. Miguel-Aliaga, A. Jacinto, P. Leopold, P. Domingos, C. Mirth, R. Teodoro, M. Dominguez, M.L. Vasconcelos, J.C. Yin and M. O'Connor, for reagents. Stocks obtained from the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (NIH P40OD018537) were used in this study. A.M.G., F.H., A.M., A.R.M.D. and T.K. are supported by the FCT, under the FCT Investigator Programme and FCT fellowships SFRH/BPD/94112/2013, PD/BD/52421/2013, SFRH/BD/94931/2013 and SFRH/BPD/74313/2010, respectively. A.G. is supported by the CONICET and UNS, and Y.A.V. holds a CONICET fellowship. The work in the laboratory of A.M.G. is funded by the CEDOC and the European Commission FP7 (PCIG13-GA-2013-618847). A.G. thanks N.P. Rotstein and L.E. Politi for providing funds and space to develop a part of this project in their lab.How different organs in the body sense growth perturbations in distant tissues to coordinate their size during development is poorly understood. Here we mutate an invertebrate orphan relaxin receptor gene, the Drosophila Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 3 (Lgr3), and find body asymmetries similar to those found in insulin-like peptide 8 (dilp8) mutants, which fail to coordinate growth with developmental timing. Indeed, mutation or RNA intereference (RNAi) against Lgr3 suppresses the delay in pupariation induced by imaginal disc growth perturbation or ectopic Dilp8 expression. By tagging endogenous Lgr3 and performing cell type-specific RNAi, we map this Lgr3 activity to a new subset of CNS neurons, four of which are a pair of bilateral pars intercerebralis Lgr3-positive (PIL) neurons that respond specifically to ectopic Dilp8 by increasing cAMP-dependent signalling. Our work sheds new light on the function and evolution of relaxin receptors and reveals a novel neuroendocrine circuit responsive to growth aberrations.publishersversionpublishe

La correspondencia de Valencia : diario de noticias : eco imparcial de la opinión y de la prensa: Año XXXVII Número 15927 - 1914 Febrero 21

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Cultura. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 200

Analysis of Functional Interactions of Enzymes in Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Abstract. In an organism proteins perform many biological functions. In the metabolism they act as catalysts in a network of chemical reactions. Many biological functions are integrated through a network of interactions and their characterization is important to the understanding of the orchestrated mechanisms that underlie the machinery of life. In this work we propose a new description of the network of functional interactions among enzymes. We present preliminary results of its application to the metabolism of Mycoplasma pneumoniae. We investigate the importance and conservation of enzyme connectivity in the metabolism and find that some enzymes are highly connected. Additional applications of the network include the easier visualization of enzyme actions and interactions and the identification of incorrect functional annotations. Metabolic Networks, Proteomics, Drug targets

Distribution and conservation of the transposable element gypsy in drosophilid species

In an attempt to understand the dynamics of transposable elements (T'S) in the genome of host species, we investigated the distribution, representativeness and conservation of DNA sequences homologous to the Drosophila melanogaster gypsy retrotransposon in 42 drosophilid species. Our results extended the knowledge about the wide distribution of gypsy in the genus Drosophila, including several Neotropical species not previously studied. The gypsy-like sequences showed high divergence compared to the D. melanogaster gypsy element. Furthermore, the conservation of the restriction sites between gypsy sequences from phylogenetically unrelated species pointed to a more complex evolutionary picture, which includes the possibility of the horizontal transfer events already described for this retrotransposon

Transposable elements P and gypsy in natural populations of Drosophila willistoni

The presence and integrity of the P transposon and the gypsy retrotransposon in the genome of 18 samples of natural Drosophila willistoni populations collected from a large area of South America were Southern blot screened using Drosophila melanogaster probes. The aim of this screening was provide further knowledge-base on the geographical distribution of D. willistoni and to carry out an inter-population analysis of the P and gypsy elements present in the genomes of the populations analyzed. The fragment patterns obtained indicate that both the P and gypsy elements are ancient in the D. willistoni genome, but whereas the gypsy retroelement appears to be invariable and stable the P element varies between populations and appears to still have some capacity for mobilization