The fly brain lands in Tokyo: A report on the 3rd Asia Pacific Drosophila Neurobiology Conference.

The third Asia Pacific Drosophila Neurobiology Conference (APDNC3) was held in the Wako Campus of RIKEN in Tokyo, Japan, from February 27th to March 1st, 2024. While APDNC2 was held in Taiwan in 2019, the global coronavirus pandemic enforced a long hiatus. Hence, APDNC3 was a much-anticipated meeting that attracted ~218 scientists from 18 different countries and regions, 154 from outside Japan.

A role for the circadian photoreceptor CRYPTOCHROME in regulating triglyceride metabolism in Drosophila.

The biological rhythms generated by the endogenous circadian clocks across the tree of life regulate numerous behavioral, metabolic, and physiological processes. Although evidence from various studies in Drosophila melanogaster indicates the importance of the core circadian clock genes in the intricate interplay between the circadian clock and metabolism, little is known about the contribution of the circadian photoreceptor/s in this process. The deep brain circadian photoreceptor CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) is essential for resetting the clock in response to light and is also highly expressed in metabolically active tissues in Drosophila.

Nicotinamide riboside improves muscle mitochondrial biogenesis, satellite cell differentiation, and gut microbiota in a twin study.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) precursor nicotinamide riboside (NR) has emerged as a promising compound to improve obesity-associated mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic syndrome in mice. However, most short-term clinical trials conducted so far have not reported positive outcomes. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether long-term NR supplementation boosts mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolic health in humans.

The type 1 diabetes gene TYK2 regulates β-cell development and its responses to interferon-α.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease that results in the destruction of insulin producing pancreatic β-cells. One of the genes associated with T1D is TYK2, which encodes a Janus kinase with critical roles in type-Ι interferon (IFN-Ι) mediated intracellular signalling. To study the role of TYK2 in β-cell development and response to IFNα, we generated TYK2 knockout human iPSCs and directed them into the pancreatic endocrine lineage.

Metabolic determination of cell fate through selective inheritance of mitochondria.

Metabolic characteristics of adult stem cells are distinct from their differentiated progeny, and cellular metabolism is emerging as a potential driver of cell fate conversions. How these metabolic features are established remains unclear. Here we identified inherited metabolism imposed by functionally distinct mitochondrial age-classes as a fate determinant in asymmetric division of epithelial stem-like cells.

Only time will tell: the interplay between circadian clock and metabolism.

In most organisms ranging from cyanobacteria to humans, the endogenous timekeeping system temporally coordinates the behavioral, physiological, and metabolic processes with a periodicity close to 24 h. The timing of these daily rhythms is orchestrated by the synchronized oscillations of both the central pacemaker in the brain and the peripheral clocks located across multiple organs and tissues. A growing body of evidence suggests that the central circadian clock and peripheral clocks residing in the metabolically active tissues are incredibly well coordinated to confer coherent metabolic homeostasis.

A distinct cardiopharyngeal mesoderm genetic hierarchy establishes antero-posterior patterning of esophagus striated muscle.

In most vertebrates, the upper digestive tract is composed of muscularized jaws linked to the esophagus that permits food ingestion and swallowing. Masticatory and esophagus striated muscles (ESM) share a common cardiopharyngeal mesoderm (CPM) origin, however ESM are unusual among striated muscles as they are established in the absence of a primary skeletal muscle scaffold. Using mouse chimeras, we show that the transcription factors and are required cell-autonomously for myogenic specification of ESM progenitors.

Cilia-mediated Hedgehog signaling controls form and function in the mammalian larynx.

Acoustic communication is fundamental to social interactions among animals, including humans. In fact, deficits in voice impair the quality of life for a large and diverse population of patients. Understanding the molecular genetic mechanisms of development and function in the vocal apparatus is thus an important challenge with relevance both to the basic biology of animal communication and to biomedicine.

Variations in the efficiency of lineage marking and ablation confound distinctions between myogenic cell populations.

The myogenic regulatory genes Myf5, Mrf4, Myod, and Myogenin likely arose by gene duplications during evolution, presumably to address the more demanding requirements of the vertebrate body plan. Two cell lineages were proposed to be regulated independently by Myf5 and Myod to safeguard against tissue failure. Here we report severe muscle loss following ablation of Myf5-expressing cells.