Genetic analysis of larval behaviour

果蝇是研究行为和稳态遗传基础的极好模型。它的基因组比脊椎动物的基因组简单，便于用突变的方法来解决一系列问题。果蝇和所有其他生物一样，不断调节食物摄入和代谢，以满足能量需求和营养供应。目前的模型在文献中分配的脂肪体，果蝇脂肪组织，执行多种代谢功能，在协调行为和稳态的核心作用。我们的工作将保守的支架蛋白RanBPM作为这些过程中脂肪体功能的重要贡献者。我建立了一个新的调查路线，旨在研究果蝇幼虫的摄食调节。RanBPM（微管组织中心中的Ran-Binding Protein in the Microtubule Organizing Center）蛋白被鉴定为饥饿诱导的食物摄入和适当的全身胰岛素信号传导所需的蛋白。RanBPM最初被确定为结合Ran，但它确实在Ran依赖性过程中起作用。它包含蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用结构域，并且作为推定的支架蛋白参与各种信号传导途径。我们的研究结果表明，RanBPM有助于脂肪体的功能，在体液控制胰岛素的合成和分泌的胰岛素产生细胞在大脑和神经胶质细胞和幼虫觅食行为的调制。我们的观察结果表明，在不同的器官RanBPM的复杂要求。在这里，我们专注于RanBPM基因功能的脂肪体依赖的行为和稳态调节的作用。本申请中概述的实验结果将有助于我们理解行为和代谢调节中的器官间通信。RanBPM基因的功能提供了一个独特的机会来探测参与脂肪体的信号通路，在代谢应激对行为的影响的背景下，对器官间通讯进行综合调节。

The fruit fly Drosophila is an excellent model to study the genetic basis of behaviour and homeostasis. Its genome, less complex than that of vertebrates, facilitates a mutational approach to a wide range of questions. Drosophila as all other organisms continually modulates food intake and metabolism to energy needs and nutrient availability. The current model in the literature assigns the fat body, the Drosophila adipose tissue that performs multiple metabolic functions, with a central role in the coordination of behaviour and homeostasis. Our work places the conserved scaffold protein RanBPM as an important contributor of the fat body function in these processes. I established a new line of investigation aimed at studying the regulation of feeding in the Drosophila larva. The RanBPM (Ran-Binding Protein in the Microtubule Organizing Center) protein was identified as required for starvation-induced food intake and for proper systemic Insulin Signalling. RanBPM was originally identified as binding Ran however it does function in Ran-dependent processes. It contains protein-protein interactions domains and it has been implicated in various signalling pathways as a putative scaffolding protein. Our results demonstrated that RanBPM contributes to the function of the fat body in the humoral control of Insulin synthesis and secretion from the Insulin producing cells in the brain and from the glia and for the modulation of larval foraging behaviour. Our observations suggest a complex requirement for RanBPM in different organs. Here we focus on the role the RanBPM gene function in the fat body-dependent regulation of behaviour and homeostasis. The results of the experiments outlined in this application will contribute to our understanding of inter organ communication in the regulation of behaviour and metabolism. RanBPM gene function offers a unique opportunity to probe the signalling pathways involved in the fat body for the integrated regulation of inter organ communication in the context of the impact of metabolic stress on behaviour.