Rosy Beginnings: Studying Peroxisomes in .

Research using the fruit fly has traditionally focused on understanding how mutations affecting gene regulation or function affect processes linked to animal development. Accordingly, flies have become an essential foundation of modern medical research through repeated contributions to our fundamental understanding of how their homologs of human genes function. Peroxisomes are organelles that metabolize lipids and reactive oxygen species like peroxides.

The role of during embryonic development.

Peroxisomes are organelles in eukaryotic cells responsible for processing several types of lipids and management of reactive oxygen species. A conserved family of peroxisome biogenesis (, ) genes encode proteins essential to peroxisome biogenesis or function. In yeast and mammals, PEROXIN7 (PEX7) acts as a cytosolic receptor protein that targets enzymes containing a peroxisome targeting signal 2 (PTS2) motif for peroxisome matrix import.