No abstract

Drosophila melanogaster is a commonly used organism in biological research. Their Air Sac Primordium (ASP) is analogous to the human lungs in that it supplies oxygen to the flight muscles. Furthermore, the ASP has emerged as a good structure to study cellular invasive processes with the potential to aid in our understanding of tumor metastasis. The ASP originates on the outside of the wing imaginal disc and then burrows into the wing imaginal disc as it develops. What genes are involved in this process is not well understood. A genetic screen for genes that are expressed in the ASP identified a proton pump gene encoding a V‐ATPase. The V‐ATPase is a vacuolar proton pump that plays a large array of roles from regulating the pH of cells internal space, to regulating endocytosis, to processing proteins and degradation. In insects, the V‐ATPase are important in establishing a membrane potential to drive K+ secretion. It has also been found to influence tracheal branching. Using RNA interference, the gene for the V‐ATPase was knocked down resulting in a defect in ASP development. Data from these and other experiments will be presented and their significance will be discussed. Support or Funding Information Kentucky Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (KBRIN) GrantGatton Academy Research Internship Grant (RIG)Faculty Undergraduate Student Engagement (FUSE) Grant

Fruit flies (D. melanogaster) are ideal genetic model organisms that can closely replicate human genetic anomalies and characteristics. The invasion of the Air Sac Primordia (ASP), an organ analogous to the human lung, into the Wing Imaginal Disc (WID) of larval fruit flies is closely related to tumor metastasis in humans, as both processes use similar mechanisms to break down the basement membrane. By studying genes responsible for ASP invasion, researchers may be able to identify analogous genes in humans responsible for tumor metastasis. A genetic screen, using 100 protein trap lines, was conducted to find genes expressed in ASP and potentially involved in ASP invasion. The protein trap lines tagged endogenous proteins with a Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) to indicate tissue localization of selected proteins under a fluorescent microscope. WID were isolated from 10 third instar larvae of each line and imaged using fluorescence microscopy. Eleven of the 100 lines screened exhibited GFP expression in the WID, but not in the ASP. Only one of the 65 lines exhibited GFP expression in the ASP. The gene responsible was Apontic (apt). Apontic's role in ASP invasion will be further investigated using RNA interference to knock down the gene.Support or Funding InformationAnas Gondal*, Hasan Salim, Dr. Ajay Srivastava, and Nathan PowersGatton Academy of Math and Science, Department of Biology and Biotechnology Center, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KYKBRIN AREA and IDeA Grants funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health Grant # P20GM103436Gatton Academy Research Internship Grant (RIG)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.