Investigating a Novel Lifespan Gene in Drosophila melanogaster

Overview

Objectives/Goals The goal is to isolate a long live strain by affecting gene expression with the use of the enhancer promoters (EP) and driver P-element. Then identified the function and find the significance of this gene. If possible, find useful applications of this gene. Methods/Materials A lifespan analysis was perform to identify if EP3306, a fly line which has an overexpression of an unknown gene region, was long-lived. After EP3306 was shown to be long-lived, the next step was to find the overexpressed gene responsible for the extension of lifespan by conducting a plasmid rescue protocol. This resulted in the discovery of a putative gene, CG7900. A transgenic (clone) was made to verify that the gene, CG7900, was actually the gene responsible for longevity. Lastly, RT-PCR was perform to measure the amount of RNA levels for the EP3306 lines and the transgenic line to verify that the gene, CG7900, is actually be overexpressed. Results A screen for lifespan extension was performed using a driver line and a collection of EP lines. A driver line has a P-element which expresses the yeast transcriptional activator, gal4, while an EP line has a complimentary P-element which contains the DNA binding sequence of gal4. When a driver is crossed to an EP, the region downstream of the EP will be overexpressed. The mutant EP3306 was identified and found to have a reproducible lifespan extension. The EP3306 insertion site was found, and the putative gene overexpressed appeared to be an uncharacterized gene, CG7900. A genomic transgenic was constructed to verify that overexpression of CG7900 extends lifespan in an independent line. A recombinant was made between EP3306 and the daughterless-gal4 driver to look at interactions with other long-lived lines in the lab. Results show that CG7900 is the cause of increased lifespan and the gene itself seems to play a vital role in metabolism. Conclusions/Discussion In conclusion, the EP is located 300 base pairs upstream of the CG7900 gene, which has a high sequence similarity to a human protein. Hence, the understanding of how overexpression of CG7900 extends lifespan could be important to not only the understanding of fly aging, but also the aging process in humans.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology · Entry S0411

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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