Invertebrates as Powerful Genetic Models for Human Neurodegenerative Diseases

Abstract

Our attempt to elucidate the basic mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and to identify pharmaceuticals that can affect these diseases has largely been inhibited by the complexities of the vertebrate brain and the difficulties of modeling the diseases in cell cultures. Most studies involving rodent or cell culture models require some prior knowledge of the molecular pathways that could be involved in the disease. Now, through the completion of genome‐sequencing projects and the development of genetic technologies, we can begin to identify novel molecular components involved in human diseases using genetically tractable organisms. In this chapter we will briefly summarize recent advances using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster to model a number of neurodegenerative diseases and describe the potential these organisms have to identify novel proteins and environmental compounds that could confer cell death as well as pharmaceutical targets that can protect against these disorders.

Collective behaviors of Drosophila-derived retinal progenitors in controlled microenvironments

“…Development of the compound eye requires the collective migration of heterogeneous RPC groups, i.e. both neuronal and glial progenitors, involving signaling pathways and mechanistic processes surprisingly analogous to vertebrate retinogenesis [19,23,24]. The combination of conserved pathways with significant genetic tools available, underscores Drosophila as a uniquely advantageous model with which to examine collective chemotactic responses of RPCs.…”