A gain-of-function screen to identify genes that reduce lifespan in the adult of Drosophila melanogaster.

Background: Several lines of evidence associate misregulated genetic expression with risk factors for diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other diseases that sporadically develop in healthy adults with no background of hereditary disorders. Thus, we are interested in genes that may be expressed normally through parts of an individual's life, but can cause physiological defects and disease when misexpressed in adulthood.

Results: We attempted to identify these genes in a model organism by arbitrarily misexpressing specific genes in adult Drosophila melanogaster, using 14,133 Gene Search lines.