Neuman, S. D., Thakur, R. S., Gratz, S. J., O'Connor-Giles, K. M., Bashirullah, A. (2025). Neurodegenerative and Neurodevelopmental Roles for Bulk Lipid Transporters VPS13A and BLTP2. Mov Disord, movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Nagori, R., Vigoreaux, J. O. (2025). beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate Attenuates Age-Dependent Loss of Flight Ability and Extends Lifespan in Drosophila Int J Mol Sci, 26(6) www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/26...

Longitudinal multi-omics in alpha-synuclein Drosophila model discriminates disease- from age-associated pathologies in Parkinson’s disease - npj Parkinson's Disease npj Parkinson's Disease - Longitudinal multi-omics in alpha-synuclein Drosophila model discriminates disease- from age-associated pathologies in Parkinson’s disease

Moore, J., Wu, T., Dhindsa, J., ..., Shulman, J. M., Al-Ramahi, I., Botas, J. (2025). Longitudinal multi-omics in alpha-synuclein Drosophila model discriminates disease- from age-associated pathologies in Parkinson's disease. NPJ Parkinsons Dis, 11(1):46 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Developmental mitochondrial complex I activity determines lifespan - EMBO Reports Aberrant mitochondrial function has been associated with an increasingly large number of human disease states. Observations from in vivo models where mitochondrial function is altered suggest that maladaptations to mitochondrial dysfunction may underpin disease pathology. We hypothesized that the severity of this maladaptation could be shaped by the plasticity of the system when mitochondrial dysfunction manifests. To investigate this, we have used inducible fly models of mitochondrial complex I (CI) dysfunction to reduce mitochondrial function at two stages of the fly lifecycle, from early development and adult eclosion. Here, we show that in early life (developmental) mitochondrial dysfunction results in severe reductions in survival and stress resistance in adulthood, while flies where mitochondrial function is perturbed from adulthood, are long-lived and stress resistant despite having up to a 75% reduction in CI activity. After excluding developmental defects as a cause, we went on to molecularly characterize these two populations of mitochondrially compromised flies, short- and long-lived. We find that our short-lived flies have unique transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic responses, which overlap significantly in discrete models of CI dysfunction. Our data demonstrate that early mitochondrial dysfunction via CI depletion elicits a maladaptive response, which severely reduces survival, while CI depletion from adulthood is insufficient to reduce survival and stress resistance.

Stefanatos, R., Robertson, F., Castejon-Vega, B., Yu, Y., Uribe, A., Myers, K., Kataura, T., Korolchuk, V. I., Maddocks, O. D. K., Martins, L. M., Sanz, A. (2025). Developmental mitochondrial complex I activity determines lifespan EMBO Rep, 26(8):1957-1983 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Poudel, S., Chuang, C. L., Shrestha, H. K., Demontis, F. (2025). Pan-PTM profiling identifies post-translational modifications associated with exceptional longevity and preservation of skeletal muscle function in Drosophila NPJ Aging, 11(1):23 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pollington, H. Q., Doe, C. Q. (2025). The Hunchback transcription factor determines interneuron molecular identity, morphology, and presynapse targeting in the Drosophila NB5-2 lineage PLoS Biol, 23(3):e3002881 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

olf413 an octopamine biogenesis pathway gene is required for axon growth and pathfinding during embryonic nervous system development in Drosophila melanogaster - BMC Research Notes Objective Neurotransmitters have been extensively studied as neural communication molecules. Genetic associations discovered, and indirect intervention studies in Humans and mammals have led to a general proposition that neurotransmitters have a role in structuring of neuronal network during development. olf413 is a Drosophila gene annotated as coding for dopamine beta-monooxygenase enzyme with a predicted function in octopaminergic pathway. The biological function of this gene is very little worked out. In this study we investigate the requirement of olf413 gene function for octopamine biogenesis and developmental patterning of embryonic nervous system. Result In our study we have used the newly characterized neuronal specific allele olf413SG1.1, and the gene disruption strain olf413MI02014 to dissect out the function of olf413. olf413 has an enhancer activity as depicted by reporter GFP expression, in the embryonic ventral nerve cord, peripheral nervous system and the somatic muscle bundles. Homozygous loss of function mutants show reduced levels of octopamine, and this finding supports the proposed function of the gene in octopamine biogenesis. Further, loss of function of olf413 causes embryonic lethality. FasII staining of these embryos reveal a range of phenotypes in the central and peripheral motor nerves, featuring axonal growth, pathfinding, branching and misrouting defects. Our findings are important as they implicate a key functional requirement of this gene in precise axonal patterning events, a novel developmental role imparted for an octopamine biosynthesis pathway gene in structuring of embryonic nervous system.

Ramya, R., Venkatesh, C. R., Shyamala, B. V. (2024). olf413 an octopamine biogenesis pathway gene is required for axon growth and pathfinding during embryonic nervous system development in Drosophila melanogaster BMC Res Notes, 17(1):46 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Hunter, I., Coulson, B., Pettini, T., Davies, J. J., Parkin, J., Landgraf, M., Baines, R. A. (2024). Balance of activity during a critical period tunes a developing network Elife, 12. elifesciences.org/articles/91599

Bui, K. C., Kamiyama, D. (2024). Adjacent Neuronal Fascicle Guides Motoneuron 24 Dendritic Branching and Axonal Routing Decisions through Dscam1 Signaling. bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

McLamb, F., Feng, Z., Vu, J. P., Griffin, L., Vasquez, M. F., Bozinovic, G. (2024). Lagging Brain Gene Expression Patterns of Drosophila melanogaster Young Adult Males Confound Comparisons Between Sexes. Molecular neurobiology link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Lefebvre, M., Colen, J., Claussen, N., Brauns, F., Raich, M., Mitchell, N., Fruchart, M., Vitelli, V., Streichan, S. J. (2024). Learning a conserved mechanism for early neuroectoderm morphogenesis. ArXiv pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Padash Barmchi, M., Hassan, R. N., ..., Collins, Q. P., Grunsted, M. J. (2025). Drosophila model of HPV18-Induced pathogenesis reveals a role for E6 oncogene in regulation of NF-kappaB and Wnt to inhibit apoptosis Tumour Virus Res, 19:200316 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Molano-Fernandez, M., Hickson, I. D., Herranz, H. (2025). Replication stress promotes cellular transformation in Drosophila epithelium. Cell Death Discov, 11(1):96 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hirata, M., Nomura, T., Inoue, Y. H. (2025). Anti-Tumor Effects of Cecropin A and Drosocin Incorporated into Macrophage-like Cells Against Hematopoietic Tumors in Drosophila mxc Mutants Cells, 14(6) pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Tsai, M., Sun, J., Alexandre, C., Shapiro, M., Franchet, A., Li, Y., Gould, A. P., Vincent, J. P., Stockinger, B., Diny, N. L. (2025). Drosophila AHR limits tumor growth and stem cell proliferation in the intestine Wellcome Open Res, 10:38 wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-...

Non-gonadal PIWIL1/Aubergine drives regenerative and tumorigenic stem cell proliferation in the intestine Expression and function of classical germline genes are reported in somatic tissues. Bellec et al. report damage-inducible upregulation and function of the PIWI protein Aubergine in regenerating intes...

Bellec, K., Carroll, L. R., Pennel, K., ..., Edwards, J., Myant, K., Hayashi, R., Cordero, J. B. (2026). Non-gonadal PIWIL1/Aubergine drives regenerative and tumorigenic stem cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in the intestine Cell Rep, 45(4):117186 www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Epithelial cell competition is promoted by signaling from immune cells - Nature Communications In the fruit fly Drosophila, juxtaposition of phenotypically different cells can lead to cell competition, resulting in killing of one of the two cell types, followed by removal of the dead cells by p...

Zhu, Y., Wunderlich, Z., Lander, A. D. (2025). Epithelial cell competition is promoted by signaling from immune cells Nat Commun, 16(1):3710 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Kotb, N. M., Ulukaya, G., Ramamoorthy, A., Park, L. S., Tang, J., Hasson, D., Rangan, P. (2025). TORC1-driven translation of Nucleoporin44A promotes chromatin remodeling and germ cell-to-maternal transition in Drosophila bioRxiv, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The transcription factor Capicua maintains the oocyte polarity in the panoistic ovary of the German cockroach The establishment of the symmetry axis is crucial for the development of all organisms. In insects, this process begins early in oogenesis with the co…

Elshaer, N., Escudero, J., Piulachs, M. D. (2025). The transcription factor Capicua maintains the oocyte polarity in the panoistic ovary of the German cockroach Dev Biol, 522:125-135 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Sec61β, a subunit of the Sec61 complex at the endoplasmic reticulum, coordinates with Ocnus in regulating Drosophila spermatogenesis sec61β encodes a subunit of the Sec61 translocon which is a highly conserved heterotrimer responsible for translocating the nascent polypeptides into …

Wang, Q., Chen, X., Wang, Y. F. (2025). Sec61beta, a subunit of the Sec61 complex at the endoplasmic reticulum, coordinates with Ocnus in regulating Drosophila spermatogenesis Insect Biochem Mol Biol, 180:104310 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Oka, M., Nakajima, S., Suzuki, E., Yamamoto, S., Ando, K. (2025). Glucose uptake in pigment glia suppresses Tau-induced inflammation and photoreceptor degeneration Dis Model Mech, journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/...

Drosophila ovarian stem cell niche ageing involves coordinated changes in transcription and alternative splicing - Nature Communications Ageing is associated with alterations in gene expression and alternative splicing. Here, the authors show that ageing of the Drosophila ovarian stem cell niche involves coordinated changes in both exp...

Even-Ros, D., Huertas-Romero, J., Marin-Menguiano, M., ..., Irimia, M., Zurita, F., Gonzalez-Reyes, A. (2025). Drosophila ovarian stem cell niche ageing involves coordinated changes in transcription and alternative splicing Nat Commun, 16(1):2596 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Noh, S., Na, S., Song, X., Hyun, S. (2025). Germline expression of Imp-L2 in Drosophila females enhances reproductive activity and longevity Anim Cells Syst (Seoul), 29(1):31-40 www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/...

Proximity-based activation of AURORA A by MPS1 potentiates error correction Leça et al. demonstrate that MPS1 on pole-proximal kinetochores phosphorylates AAK, enhancing its activation and potentiating a local gradient of AAK activity that destabilizes incorrect kinetochore-m...

Leca, N., Barbosa, F., Rodriguez-Calado, S., ...., Sunkel, C. E., Barisic, M., Maresca, T. J., Conde, C. (2025). Proximity-based activation of AURORA A by MPS1 potentiates error correction Curr Biol, 35(8):1935-194 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Goldstein, B., Sheikh-Suliman, S., Bakhrat, A., Abdu, U. (2025). The differential roles of rad9 alternatively spliced forms in double- strand DNA break repair during Drosophila meiosis DNA Repair (Amst), 149:103833 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Pairing between homologous sequences on the X and chromosome 3 in Drosophila male meiosis Abstract. Pairing between sex chromosomes in male Drosophila normally occurs at intergenic spacer (IGS) sequences within the tandemly repeated rDNA genes t

Hylton, C. A., Hansen, K., Tomkiel Dean, J. E. (2025). Pairing between homologous sequences on the X and chromosome 3 in Drosophila male meiosis Genetics, 230(2) academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

Meng, Z., Norwitz, N. G., Bickel, S. E. (2025). Meiotic cohesion requires Sirt1 and preserving its activity in aging oocytes reduces missegregation bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Intrinsically weak sex chromosome drive through sequential asymmetric meiosis An intrinsically weak X chromosome–linked meiotic driver increases its transmission without exterminating Y chromosome.

Meng, X., Yamashita, Y. M. (2025). Intrinsically weak sex chromosome drive through sequential asymmetric meiosisSci Adv, 11(19):eadv7089 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Jones, J. D., Holder, B. L., Montgomery, A. C., ...., A. I., Elder, A. J., McEllin, J. A., Dissel, S. (2025). The dorsal fan-shaped body is a neurochemically heterogeneous sleep-regulating center in Drosophila PLoS Biol, 23(3):e3003014 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40138668/

Olfactory Receptor Responses to Pure Odorants in Drosophila melanogaster Odorants were purified by gas chromatography and elicited calcium responses in D. melanogasters olfactory sensory neurons, measured on the antenna. Different olfactory receptor types revealed their s...

Ludke, A., Kumaraswamy, A., Galizia, C. G. (2025). Olfactory Receptor Responses to Pure Odorants in Drosophila melanogasterEur J Neurosci, 61(5):e70036 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...