Publications by authors named "Kim Rewitz"

Obesity impairs tissue insulin sensitivity and signaling, promoting type-2 diabetes. Although improving insulin signaling is key to reversing diabetes, the multi-organ mechanisms regulating this process are poorly defined. Here, we screen the secretome and receptome in Drosophila to identify the hormonal crosstalk affecting diet-induced insulin resistance and obesity.

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Animals must adapt their dietary choices to meet their nutritional needs. How these needs are detected and translated into nutrient-specific appetites that drive food-choice behaviours is poorly understood. Here we show that enteroendocrine cells of the adult female Drosophila midgut sense nutrients and in response release neuropeptide F (NPF), which is an ortholog of mammalian neuropeptide Y-family gut-brain hormones.

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Article Synopsis
  • Ant colonies are complex groups with different types of ants, like queens and workers, that develop in unique ways.
  • A study looked at two types of ants and found that the genes controlling their different roles are really important during their growth stages.
  • The research shows that certain genes help determine if an ant will be a queen or a worker, and the hormones in their bodies help guide this process.
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Nutrition is one of the most important influences on growth and the timing of maturational transitions including mammalian puberty and insect metamorphosis. Childhood obesity is associated with precocious puberty, but the assessment mechanism that links body fat to early maturation is unknown. During development, the intake of nutrients promotes signaling through insulin-like systems that govern the growth of cells and tissues and also regulates the timely production of the steroid hormones that initiate the juvenile-adult transition.

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The intestine is a central regulator of metabolic homeostasis. Dietary inputs are absorbed through the gut, which senses their nutritional value and relays hormonal information to other organs to coordinate systemic energy balance. However, the gut-derived hormones affecting metabolic and behavioral responses are poorly defined.

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Animals maintain metabolic homeostasis by modulating the activity of specialized organs that adjust internal metabolism to external conditions. However, the hormonal signals coordinating these functions are incompletely characterized. Here we show that six neurosecretory cells in the Drosophila central nervous system respond to circulating nutrient levels by releasing Capa hormones, homologs of mammalian neuromedin U, which activate the Capa receptor (CapaR) in peripheral tissues to control energy homeostasis.

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Article Synopsis
  • In 2008, guidelines were established for researching autophagy, which has since gained significant interest and new technologies, necessitating regular updates to monitoring methods across various organisms.
  • The new guidelines emphasize selecting appropriate techniques to evaluate autophagy while noting that no single method suits all situations; thus, a combination of methods is encouraged.
  • The document highlights that key proteins involved in autophagy also impact other cellular processes, suggesting genetic studies should focus on multiple autophagy-related genes to fully understand these pathways.
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Steroid hormones control major developmental transitions such as metamorphosis in insects and puberty in mammals. The juvenile must attain a sufficient size before it begins maturation in order to give rise to a properly sized and reproductively fit adult. Studies in the insect Drosophila have begun to reveal a remarkable example of the complex interplay between different organs and the neuroendocrine system that controls the production of the steroid ecdysone, which triggers metamorphosis.

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The control of body and organ growth is essential for the development of adults with proper size and proportions, which is important for survival and reproduction. In animals, adult body size is determined by the rate and duration of juvenile growth, which are influenced by the environment. In nutrient-scarce environments in which more time is needed for growth, the juvenile growth period can be extended by delaying maturation, whereas juvenile development is rapidly completed in nutrient-rich conditions.

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The activation of a neuroendocrine system that induces a surge in steroid production is a conserved initiator of the juvenile-to-adult transition in many animals. The trigger for maturation is the secretion of brain-derived neuropeptides, yet the mechanisms controlling the timely onset of this event remain ill-defined. Here, we show that a regulatory feedback circuit controlling the neuropeptide Prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) triggers maturation onset.

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Organisms adapt to changing environments by adjusting their development, metabolism, and behavior to improve their chances of survival and reproduction. To achieve such flexibility, organisms must be able to sense and respond to changes in external environmental conditions and their internal state. Metabolic adaptation in response to altered nutrient availability is key to maintaining energy homeostasis and sustaining developmental growth.

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The human 22q11.2 chromosomal deletion is one of the strongest identified genetic risk factors for schizophrenia. Although the deletion spans a number of known genes, the contribution of each of these to the 22q11.

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Steroid hormones are made from cholesterol and are essential for many developmental processes and disease conditions. The production of these hormones is nutrient dependent and tightly controlled by mechanisms that involve delivery of the precursor molecule cholesterol stored in lipid droplets (LDs). Recent studies have implicated macroautophagy/autophagy, a process regulated by nutrition, in the degradation of LDs and the mobilization of stored lipids.

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Organisms adapt their metabolism and growth to the availability of nutrients and oxygen, which are essential for development, yet the mechanisms by which this adaptation occurs are not fully understood. Here we describe an RNAi-based body-size screen in Drosophila to identify such mechanisms. Among the strongest hits is the fibroblast growth factor receptor homolog breathless necessary for proper development of the tracheal airway system.

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Steroid hormones are important signaling molecules that regulate growth and drive the development of many cancers. These factors act as long-range signals that systemically regulate the growth of the entire organism, whereas the Hippo/Warts tumor-suppressor pathway acts locally to limit organ growth. We show here that autophagy, a pathway that mediates the degradation of cellular components, also controls steroid production.

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The human 1q21.1 deletion of ten genes is associated with increased risk of schizophrenia. This deletion involves the β-subunit of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) complex, a key energy sensor in the cell.

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Behavior and physiology are orchestrated by neuropeptides acting as central neuromodulators and circulating hormones. An outstanding question is how these neuropeptides function to coordinate complex and competing behaviors. In Drosophila, the neuropeptide leucokinin (LK) modulates diverse functions, but mechanisms underlying these complex interactions remain poorly understood.

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Coordination of growth between individual organs and the whole body is essential during development to produce adults with appropriate size and proportions [1, 2]. How local organ-intrinsic signals and nutrient-dependent systemic factors are integrated to generate correctly proportioned organisms under different environmental conditions is poorly understood. In Drosophila, Hippo/Warts signaling functions intrinsically to regulate tissue growth and organ size [3, 4], whereas systemic growth is controlled via antagonistic interactions of the steroid hormone ecdysone and nutrient-dependent insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) (insulin) signaling [2, 5].

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Circadian clocks are important timekeepers of physiological processes. A new report shows that silencing the circadian clock specifically in steroid-producing cells of Drosophila disrupts development and causes lethality, and is more detrimental than having no clock at all.

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We used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a cost-effective in vivo model to evaluate the efficacy of novel antibacterial peptides and peptoids for treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. A panel of peptides with known antibacterial activity in vitro and/or in vivo was tested in Drosophila Although most peptides and peptoids that were effective in vitro failed to rescue lethal effects of S. aureus infections in vivo, we found that two lantibiotics, nisin and NAI-107, rescued adult flies from fatal infections.

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Steroid hormones control important developmental processes and are linked to many diseases. To systematically identify genes and pathways required for steroid production, we performed a Drosophila genome-wide in vivo RNAi screen and identified 1,906 genes with potential roles in steroidogenesis and developmental timing. Here, we use our screen as a resource to identify mechanisms regulating intracellular levels of cholesterol, a substrate for steroidogenesis.

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The neuroendocrine peptides CCHamide-1 and -2, encoded by the genes ccha1 and -2, are produced by endocrine cells in the midgut and by neurons in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster. Here, we used the CRISPR/Cas9 technique to disrupt the ccha1 and -2 genes and identify mutant phenotypes with a focus on ccha-2 mutants. We found that both larval and adult ccha2 mutants showed a significantly reduced food intake as measured in adult flies by the Capillary Feeding (CAFE) assay (up to 72% reduced food intake compared to wild-type).

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Coordinating metabolism and feeding is important to avoid obesity and metabolic diseases, yet the underlying mechanisms, balancing nutrient intake and metabolic expenditure, are poorly understood. Several mechanisms controlling these processes are conserved in Drosophila, where homeostasis and energy mobilization are regulated by the glucagon-related adipokinetic hormone (AKH) and the Drosophila insulin-like peptides (DILPs). Here, we provide evidence that the Drosophila neuropeptide Allatostatin A (AstA) regulates AKH and DILP signaling.

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Specialized endocrine cells produce and release steroid hormones that govern development, metabolism and reproduction. In order to synthesize steroids, all the genes in the biosynthetic pathway must be coordinately turned on in steroidogenic cells. In Drosophila, the steroid producing endocrine cells are located in the prothoracic gland (PG) that releases the steroid hormone ecdysone.

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Steroid hormones trigger the onset of sexual maturation in animals by initiating genetic response programs that are determined by steroid pulse frequency, amplitude and duration. Although steroid pulses coordinate growth and timing of maturation during development, the mechanisms generating these pulses are not known. Here we show that the ecdysone steroid pulse that drives the juvenile-adult transition in Drosophila is determined by feedback circuits in the prothoracic gland (PG), the major steroid-producing tissue of insect larvae.

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