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Full-Text Articles in Biochemistry

A Genetic, Transgenic, And Transcriptomic Analysis Of Larval Salivary Gland Physiology In Drosophila Melanogaster, Elana A. Paladino Dec 2012

A Genetic, Transgenic, And Transcriptomic Analysis Of Larval Salivary Gland Physiology In Drosophila Melanogaster, Elana A. Paladino

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Cholesterol is the precursor to a unique class of lipophilic signaling molecules called steroid hormones that initiate the development of sexual characteristics, reactions to stress, and maintenance of metabolism, among many other functions. Although much progress has been made in understanding the function of these signaling hormones, we do not fully understand how a single steroid can cause many distinct, tissue-specific responses. Drosophila melanogaster is an effective model for understanding steroid hormone action because of its simplicity. The steroid molting hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (hereafter, 20E) is the primary active steroid in Drosophila and mediates not only larval molts and the emergence …


Evidence For An Epigenetic Mechanism By Which Hsp90 Acts As A Capacitor For Morphological Evolution, Vincent E. Sollars, Xiangyi Lu, Li Xiao, Xiaoyan Wang, Mark D. Garfinkel, Douglas M. Ruden Aug 2012

Evidence For An Epigenetic Mechanism By Which Hsp90 Acts As A Capacitor For Morphological Evolution, Vincent E. Sollars, Xiangyi Lu, Li Xiao, Xiaoyan Wang, Mark D. Garfinkel, Douglas M. Ruden

Vincent E Sollars

Morphological alterations have been shown to occur in Drosophila melanogaster when function of Hsp90 (heat shock 0-kDa protein 1α, encoded by Hsp83) is compromised during development1. Genetic selection maintains the altered phenotypes in subsequent generations1. Recent experiments have shown, however, that phenotypic variation still occurs in nearly isogenic recombinant inbred strains of Arabidopsis thaliana2. Using a sensitized isogenic D. melanogaster strain, iso-KrIf-1, we confirm this finding and present evidence supporting an epigenetic mechanism for Hsp90’s capacitor function, whereby reduced activity of Hsp90 induces a heritably altered chromatin state. The altered chromatin state is evidenced by ectopic expression of the morphogen …