Major
Neuroscience
Anticipated Graduation Year
2024
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Drosophila melanogaster circadian rhythms oscillate based on many different factors and are dictated by the central brain clock, input pathways that take in outside information, and output pathways. These output pathways include peripheral tissues that can affect many different behaviors. An example of one of these tissues is the fat body, which may play a role in feeding/fasting rhythms. The mechanism used to control this behavior is not well known. By determining a connection between the central brain clock and peripheral tissues such as the fat body, the way that physiological processes such as metabolism, energy storage, and behavioral outputs are controlled can be better understood. Long term, this project aims to identify connections between metabolic rhythms utilizing metabolomics and transcriptomic of the fat body. To do so, the best, most specific driver with which to manipulate the fat body must be identified, and the expression of any other tissues must be identified. Using the GAL4-UAS system, the manipulation or selective inactivation of fat body tissues can be accomplished by certain drivers. Takeout-GAL4 is well-known as a fat body driver but may show expression in other tissues which must be identified in more detail. Lsp is another driver that must be characterized and compared to Takeout-GAL4. By characterizing each driver in detail, the most selective one can be utilized in later experiments to learn more about circadian relation to metabolism.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr. Daniel Cavanaugh (Associate Professor, Biology Department), Dr. Sumit Saurabh (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Biology Department)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
The Role of the Circadian Clock in Fat Body Transcriptomics and Metabolomics
Drosophila melanogaster circadian rhythms oscillate based on many different factors and are dictated by the central brain clock, input pathways that take in outside information, and output pathways. These output pathways include peripheral tissues that can affect many different behaviors. An example of one of these tissues is the fat body, which may play a role in feeding/fasting rhythms. The mechanism used to control this behavior is not well known. By determining a connection between the central brain clock and peripheral tissues such as the fat body, the way that physiological processes such as metabolism, energy storage, and behavioral outputs are controlled can be better understood. Long term, this project aims to identify connections between metabolic rhythms utilizing metabolomics and transcriptomic of the fat body. To do so, the best, most specific driver with which to manipulate the fat body must be identified, and the expression of any other tissues must be identified. Using the GAL4-UAS system, the manipulation or selective inactivation of fat body tissues can be accomplished by certain drivers. Takeout-GAL4 is well-known as a fat body driver but may show expression in other tissues which must be identified in more detail. Lsp is another driver that must be characterized and compared to Takeout-GAL4. By characterizing each driver in detail, the most selective one can be utilized in later experiments to learn more about circadian relation to metabolism.