Functional and phylogenetic analyses of a putative Drosophila melanogaster UDP-glycosyltransferase gene

Luque, Teresa; O’Reilly, David R.

doi:10.1016/s0965-1748(02)00080-2

Cited by 46 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Even though these genes are expressed specifically, they may have no physiological role in the wing or could be functionally redundant with proteins displaying no clear molecular similarity. The remaining 5 genes, Cyp 310a1 (cytochrome P450), Nep1 (Turner et al 2001), Ugt86Di (Luque and O'Reilly 2002), CG8483 (SMART/Ensembl annotations), and CG14534 (SMART/Ensembl annotations), are members of multi-gene families. Therefore, it is possible that effects from loss of function are masked by the activity of another family member.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Analysis of Genes Differentially Expressed in the Drosophila Wing Disc: Role of Transcripts Enriched in the Wing Region

et al. 2006

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Differential gene expression is the major mechanism underlying the development of specific body regions. Here we assessed the role of genes differentially expressed in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc, which gives rise to two distinct adult structures: the body wall and the wing. Reverse genetics was used to test the function of uncharacterized genes first identified in a microarray screen as having high levels of expression in the presumptive wing. Such genes could participate in elaborating the specific morphological characteristics of the wing. The activity of the genes was modulated using misexpression and RNAi-mediated silencing. Misexpression of eight of nine genes tested caused phenotypes. Of 12 genes tested, 10 showed effective silencing with RNAi transgenes, but only 3 of these had resulting phenotypes. The wing phenotypes resulting from RNAi suggest that CG8780 is involved in patterning the veins in the proximal region of the wing blade and that CG17278 and CG30069 are required for adhesion of wing surfaces. Venation and apposition of the wing surfaces are processes specific to wing development providing a correlation between the expression and function of these genes. The results show that a combination of expression profiling and tissue-specific gene silencing has the potential to identify new genes involved in wing development and hence to contribute to our understanding of this process. However, there are both technical and biological limitations to this approach, including the efficacy of RNAi and the role that gene redundancy may play in masking phenotypes.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Analysis of Genes Differentially Expressed in the Drosophila Wing Disc: Role of Transcripts Enriched in the Wing Region

et al. 2006

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“…Ten of these are UGT genes. This gene family, of which a total of 33 are present in the D. melanogaster genome (Luque and O'Reilly 2002), are involved in glucuronidation, the addition of glucuronic acid to a substrate to make it more soluble in water, and thus easier to excrete. Under Q4, the only protein-coding genes that showed expression variation among samples at P , 0.05 were UGT genes.…”

Section: Identifying Candidate Causative Genesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-Mapping Nicotine Resistance Loci inDrosophilaUsing a Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross Population

et al. 2014

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Animals in nature are frequently challenged by toxic compounds, from those that occur naturally in plants as a defense against herbivory, to pesticides used to protect crops. On exposure to such xenobiotic substances, animals mount a transcriptional response, generating detoxification enzymes and transporters that metabolize and remove the toxin. Genetic variation in this response can lead to variation in the susceptibility of different genotypes to the toxic effects of a given xenobiotic. Here we use Drosophila melanogaster to dissect the genetic basis of larval resistance to nicotine, a common plant defense chemical and widely used addictive drug in humans. We identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) for the trait using the DSPR (Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource), a panel of multiparental advanced intercross lines. Mapped QTL collectively explain 68.4% of the broad-sense heritability for nicotine resistance. The two largest-effect loci-contributing 50.3 and 8.5% to the genetic variation-map to short regions encompassing members of classic detoxification gene families. The largest QTL resides over a cluster of ten UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) genes, while the next largest QTL harbors a pair of cytochrome P450 genes. Using RNAseq we measured gene expression in a pair of DSPR founders predicted to harbor different alleles at both QTL and showed that Ugt86Dd, Cyp28d1, and Cyp28d2 had significantly higher expression in the founder carrying the allele conferring greater resistance. These genes are very strong candidates to harbor causative, regulatory polymorphisms that explain a large fraction of the genetic variation in larval nicotine resistance in the DSPR.A routine part of life for all organisms is avoiding, and if necessary metabolizing, toxic substances encountered in the environment. A common challenge for animals are those toxins produced by potential prey and plant hosts as chemical defenses against predation and herbivory (Glendinning 2002(Glendinning , 2007. Understanding how organisms overcome these defenses can give us insight into the evolution of host specialization, which can often involve an organism overcoming the defenses of a particular host, avoiding competition by making use of a resource toxic to other species (for example, Hungate et al. 2013). Many animals, especially insects, are also commonly exposed to chemical pesticides used to protect crop plants. As a consequence of this strong evolutionary pressure, there are a number of examples of insecticide resistance arising in natural populations (Crow 1957). Understanding the biology and molecular genetics underlying resistance to insecticides (Perry et al. 2011;Ffrench-Constant 2013) is valuable in the design of pest management strategies. In addition, humans are frequently exposed to an array of potentially harmful compounds, notably pharmaceuticals. Given the desire to achieve maximal drug efficacy while minimizing dosage and avoiding adverse drug responses, elaborating the mechanisms of drug metabolism, and the genet...

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“…It is, however, regarded as an important component of metabolic detoxification in insects, playing crucial roles in cuticular tanning (Hopkins and Kramer, 1992), pigmentation (Hopkins and Ahmad, 1991;Wiesen et al, 1994;Mizokami and Yoshitama, 2009), as well as detoxification. UGTs are encoded by a multigene family, which has been recently analyzed in several insects from which genomic information is available (Luque and O'Reilly, 2002;Huang et al, 2008). Further studies are necessary not only to determine which gene(s) is involved in the glucosylation of capsaicin but also to understand its regulatory mechanism, in relation to the host-plant adaptation of herbivores.…”

Section: Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metabolic detoxification of capsaicin by UDP‐glycosyltransferase in three Helicoverpa species

Ahn

Badenes‐Pérez

Reichelt

et al. 2011

Arch Insect Biochem Physiol

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Capsaicin β-glucoside was isolated from the feces of Helicoverpa armigera, Helicoverpa assulta, and Helicoverpa zea that fed on capsaicin-supplemented artificial diet. The chemical structure was identified by NMR spectroscopic analysis as well as by enzymatic hydrolysis. The excretion rates of the glucoside were different among the three species; those in the two generalists, H. armigera and H. zea, were higher than in a specialist, H. assulta. UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGT) enzyme activities measured from the whole larval homogenate of the three species with capsaicin and UDP-glucose as substrates were also higher in the two generalists. Compared among five different larval tissues (labial glands, testes from male larvae, midgut, the Malpighian tubules (MT), and fat body) from the three species, the formation of the capsaicin glucoside by one or more UGT is high in the fat body of all the three species as expected, as well as in H. assulta MT. Optimization of the enzyme assay method is also described in detail. Although the lower excretion rate of the unaltered capsaicin in H. assulta indicates higher metabolic capacity toward capsacin than in the other two generalists, the glucosylation per se seems to be insufficient to explain the decrease in capsaicin in the specialist, suggesting that H. assulta might have another important mechanism to deal with capsaicin more specifically.

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Functional and phylogenetic analyses of a putative Drosophila melanogaster UDP-glycosyltransferase gene

Cited by 46 publications

References 37 publications

Functional Analysis of Genes Differentially Expressed in the Drosophila Wing Disc: Role of Transcripts Enriched in the Wing Region

Functional Analysis of Genes Differentially Expressed in the Drosophila Wing Disc: Role of Transcripts Enriched in the Wing Region

Fine-Mapping Nicotine Resistance Loci inDrosophilaUsing a Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross Population

Metabolic detoxification of capsaicin by UDP‐glycosyltransferase in three Helicoverpa species

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