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Methods to Study Autophagy and Metabolism in Drosophila melanogaster

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Panagiotis Velentzas

Panagiotis Velentzas

UMass Chan Medical School, Department of Molecular, Cell & Cancer Biology

Dr. Panagiotis Velentzas is an Instructor in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology at UMASS Chan Medical School. He received his PhD from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens where he studied the role of the proteasome in different types of programmed cell death. He then did his postdoctoral training at UMASS Chan Medical School with Dr. Baehrecke, where he studied autophagy, a type of programmed cell death. There he identified a novel monocarboxylate transporter that influences autophagic cell death in Drosophila in an mTOR-dependent manner. His current research focuses on understanding the relationship between metabolism and autophagy in model organisms. Specifically, he is aiming to elucidate the role of solute carriers (SLCs), a superfamily of proteins that transport nutrients across membranes, in the regulation of autophagy, with the use of Drosophila genetic models.

Collection Overview

Macroautophagy (autophagy) is a conserved process fundamental to all eukaryotic cells. It involves the isolation of cytoplasmic organelles and proteins into double-membrane vesicles and subsequent delivery of the cargo to the lysosome for degradation or recycling when there is a scarcity of nutrients. That makes autophagy a key catabolic process that is regulated by nutrient-sensing pathways and plays an important role in the regulation of the metabolic state of the cell. Autophagy, as well as metabolic changes, have been implicated in a variety of human pathologies, including neurodegenerative, metabolic, and gastrointestinal disorders, myopathies, and several cancer types, therefore a better understanding of the mechanisms through which autophagy functions to maintain metabolic homeostasis will not only provide a better insight into the pathogeny of those diseases but also into establishing novel therapeutic strategies. Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism that has been widely used in research to study and discover novel genes and signaling pathways. Its short lifespan and powerful genetic toolkit as well as the conservation of its genome across species, has made Drosophila ideal to study complex cellular processes at tissue and at an organismal level. This collection aims to highlight cellular, molecular, biochemical, and genetic approaches to study autophagy and metabolism in Drosophila animals and tissues at different developmental stages. The collection will provide detailed protocols of techniques that will be useful to scientists that are interested in studying autophagy and metabolism in Drosophila.

Articles

Analyzing Starvation-Induced Autophagy in the <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> Larval Fat Body
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Analyzing Starvation-Induced Autophagy in the Drosophila melanogaster Larval Fat Body

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Cited by 6

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2022

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Abstracts

Using FRET-based sensors to explore metabolism in Drosophila melanogaster

Pablo Wappner*1,

Lautaro Gandara1

1Instituto Leloir

A two-step co-immunolabelling protocol to measure endogenous autophagic flux in Drosophila intestine

Steve Jean*1,

Sonya Nassari1,

Khadija Agossif1

1Université de Sherbrooke

Time-lapse in vivo real-time visualization of Drosophila fat bodies and elucidating alteration of metabolic pathways

Young Ho Koh*1

1Hallym University