Transport proteins NHA1 and NHA2 are essential for survival, but have distinct transport modalities.

The cation/proton antiporter (CPA) family includes the well-known sodium/proton exchanger (NHE; SLC9A) family of Na(+)/H(+) exchangers, and the more recently discovered and less well understood CPA2s (SLC9B), found widely in living organisms. In Drosophila, as in humans, they are represented by two genes, Nha1 (Slc9b1) and Nha2 (Slc9b2), which are enriched and functionally significant in renal tubules. The importance of their role in organismal survival has not been investigated in animals, however.

Mapping an atlas of tissue-specific Drosophila melanogaster metabolomes by high resolution mass spectrometry.

Metabolomics can provide exciting insights into organismal function, but most work on simple models has focussed on the whole organism metabolome, so missing the contributions of individual tissues. Comprehensive metabolite profiles for ten tissues from adult Drosophila melanogaster were obtained here by two chromatographic methods, a hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) method for polar metabolites and a lipid profiling method also based on HILIC, in combination with an Orbitrap Exactive instrument. Two hundred and forty two polar metabolites were putatively identified in the various tissues, and 251 lipids were observed in positive ion mode and 61 in negative ion mode.

Data-mining the FlyAtlas online resource to identify core functional motifs across transporting epithelia.

Background: Comparative analysis of tissue-specific transcriptomes is a powerful technique to uncover tissue functions. Our FlyAtlas.org provides authoritative gene expression levels for multiple tissues of Drosophila melanogaster (1).

Functional correlates of positional and gender-specific renal asymmetry in Drosophila.

Background: In humans and other animals, the internal organs are positioned asymmetrically in the body cavity, and disruption of this body plan can be fatal in humans. The mechanisms by which internal asymmetry are established are presently the subject of intense study; however, the functional significance of internal asymmetry (outside the brain) is largely unexplored. Is internal asymmetry functionally significant, or merely an expedient way of packing organs into a cavity?

Methodology/principal Findings: Like humans, Drosophila shows internal asymmetry, with the gut thrown into stereotyped folds.

Metabolomic profiling reveals that Drosophila melanogaster larvae with the y mutation have altered lysine metabolism.

Yellow (y) encodes a protein which is closely similar to major royal jelly proteins produced by bees. However, the function of y remains largely unknown. Metabolomic profiling was carried out on third instar Oregon R (OR) and yellow (y) Drosophila melanogaster larvae.

Mislocalization of mitochondria and compromised renal function and oxidative stress resistance in Drosophila SesB mutants.

Mitochondria accumulate at sites of intense metabolic activity within cells, but the adaptive value of this placement is not clear. In Drosophila, sesB encodes the ubiquitous isoform of adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT, the mitochondrial inner membrane ATP/ADP exchanger); null alleles are lethal, whereas hypomorphic alleles display sensitivity to a range of stressors. In the adult renal tubule, which is densely packed with mitochondria and hence enriched for sesB, both hypomorphic alleles and RNA interference knockdowns cause the mitochondria to lose their highly polarized distribution in the tissue and to become rounded.

Using FlyAtlas to identify better Drosophila melanogaster models of human disease.

FlyAtlas, a new online resource, provides the most comprehensive view yet of expression in multiple tissues of Drosophila melanogaster. Meta-analysis of the data shows that a significant fraction of the genome is expressed with great tissue specificity in the adult, demonstrating the need for the functional genomic community to embrace a wide range of functional phenotypes. Well-known developmental genes are often reused in surprising tissues in the adult, suggesting new functions.

Novel subcellular locations and functions for secretory pathway Ca2+/Mn2+-ATPases.

Secretory pathway Ca2+/Mn2+-ATPases (SPCAs) are important for maintenance of cellular Ca2+ and Mn2+ homeostasis, and, to date, all SPCAs have been found to localize to the Golgi apparatus. The single Drosophila SPCA gene (SPoCk) was identified by an in silico screen for novel Ca2+-ATPases. It encoded three SPoCk isoforms with novel, distinct subcellular specificities in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and peroxisomes in addition to the Golgi.