The fruit fly may help us be less clueless about human muscle development and Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
Erika Geisbrecht, Kansas State University associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, is studying the fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster<\/i>, to understand a gene called clueless, or clu. Geisbrecht and her research team have found a connection between clu and genes that cause Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
Geisbrecht\u2019s team is among the first to focus on the connection between clu and mitochondrial function in fruit fly muscle cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to understand how muscles develop and how healthy muscles are maintained throughout the entire life of a fruit fly in the hopes of applying this knowledge to the human body,\u201d Geisbrecht said.<\/p>\n
Geisbrecht uses fruit fly muscles as a model for human muscles because of their similar structures \u2014 approximately 85 percent of the human disease genes have corresponding genes in the fruit fly. Fruit flies also have a short lifecycle of 10 days from when the egg is laid to when adults emerge, which allows for the rapid observation of muscle development and maintenance.<\/p>\n
The connection between fruit fly and human muscles has made it possible to understand the role of the clu gene that \u2014 when mutated \u2014 causes defects in the localization and turnover of damaged mitochondria. A buildup of damaged mitochondria ultimately affects the ability of muscles and nerves to function properly. Geisbrecht and her team are just beginning to understand how clu interacts with a gene called parkin that \u2014 when mutated in humans \u2014 results in Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
People who are born with mutations in the parkin gene do not develop Parkinson\u2019s disease until later in adult life. The same is true for fruit flies with defects in clu or parkin: These fruit flies proceed through the larval and pupal stage of insect development and emerge as adults, but quickly die because their muscles and neurons degenerate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think about a tissue in the body that uses more energy than anything else, of course it\u2019s your muscle tissue,\u201d Geisbrecht said. \u201cProper mitochondrial function is essential to having healthy, developed muscles. It\u2019s an important connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geisbrecht\u2019s team plans to continue studying fruit flies to better understand the connection between human disease genes and muscle function. Their work could lead to better treatment for Parkinson\u2019s disease or other muscle diseases.<\/p>\n
Aside from muscle or neurodegenerative diseases, maintaining healthy muscle tissue also is important in the general population, where common diseases can also lead to muscle problems. For example, muscle wasting, or muscle deterioration, can be a huge problem for people with diabetes or cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuscle wasting for people with end-stage diabetes or cancer is often a bigger problem than the cancer or diabetes itself because it causes people to become immobile and lose the ability to make their muscles function well again,\u201d Geisbrecht said. \u201cWe want to understand what happens at the cellular level \u2014 what these genes or proteins are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kansas State University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The fruit fly may help us be less clueless about human muscle development and Parkinson\u2019s disease. Erika Geisbrecht, Kansas State University associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, is studying the fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster, to understand a gene called clueless, or clu. Geisbrecht and her research team have found a connection between clu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}