FlyMet.org - a tissue-based metabolomic online resource for the Drosophila and systems biology communities

所有的生物都有新陈代谢--一组成百上千的化学反应使它们得以生存。最近的技术使我们能够对数百种这样的化学物质进行化学快照-一种“代谢组”-它提供了一个敏感的指标，可以反映生物体内部的情况，健康和营养状况。在我们的身体中，就像在所有多细胞生物中一样，不同组织的代谢组可能会有显著差异，反映出它们执行的不同专业工作。显然，这很难在人类身上进行研究。然而，微小的果蝇，果蝇，已经证明自己是许多人类过程的理想“模型”。例如，我们对人类如何发育或生物钟如何工作的许多理解都是基于首次在果蝇中进行的研究。因此，这个项目是为果蝇的主要组织生成代谢组，并将它们与每个组织代谢“地图”的计算机模型一起放在公共领域的网上。这样的数据集对于研究果蝇新陈代谢的科学家人数的迅速增长将是非常宝贵的-例如，模拟自然衰老过程或肥胖和糖尿病-并可能提供建模技术和工具，让我们更多地了解人类生物学。同样，70%的人类遗传疾病是代谢酶的突变。它们要么直接有害，要么通过代谢物的不受控制的积累损害肾脏等器官。80%的人类基因具有果蝇同源物，因此可以在果蝇中模拟许多先天性代谢缺陷，通过代谢组学方法评估突变的影响，并在药物筛选中使用这些突变体来缓解这些危及生命的疾病。该项目的好处不太可能仅限于生物医学;例如，每年仍有100万人死于疟疾和登革热等虫媒疾病;昆虫也是蓝舌病毒等动物疾病的主要媒介。果蝇具有强大的遗传工具，是昆虫害虫的理想模型。了解昆虫的新陈代谢可以帮助我们了解昆虫是如何使杀虫剂无害的，甚至可以找到新的、更绿色的杀虫剂的新目标。

All living organisms have a metabolism - a set of hundreds or thousands of chemical reactions that allows them to survive. Recent technologies have allowed us to take a chemical snapshot of hundreds of such chemicals - a 'metabolome' - that provides a sensitive indicator of what is going on inside the organism, its health and nutritional status. In our bodies, as in all multicellular organisms, the metabolomes of different tissues are likely to differ significantly, reflecting the different specialized jobs they perform. Obviously, this is hard to study in humans. However, the tiny fruit fly, Drosophila, has proved itself to be an ideal 'model' for many human processes. For example, much of our understanding of how humans develop, or of how our body clocks work, is based on research first performed in Drosophila. So this project is to generate metabolomes for the major tissues of Drosophila, and to place them online in the public domain, together with computer models of each tissue's metabolic 'map'. Such a dataset will be invaluable for the rapidly growing population of scientists studying metabolism in Drosophila - for example to model the natural ageing process or obesity and diabetes - and may provide modelling techniques and tools to let us understand more of human biology. Similarly, 70% of human genetic diseases are mutations in metabolic enzymes. They can either be directly harmful, or damage organs like the kidney by uncontrolled accumulation of metabolites. 80% of human genes have Drosophila homologues, and so it is possible to model many inborn errors of metabolism in the fruit fly, assess the impact of mutations by metabolomic approaches, and use such mutants in drug screens to alleviate these life-threatening conditions. The benefits of the project are not likely to be specific to biomedicine; for example, a million lives are still lost annually to insect-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue; and insects are also key vectors of animal disease, such as blue tongue virus. Drosophila, with its potent genetic tools, is an ideal model for insect pests. Understanding insect metabolism may help us understand how insects render insecticides harmless, or even identify new targets for novel, greener, insecticides.