Scientists are discovering the basic genetics that make flies fly

Flies have developed excellent flight skills thanks to a set of complex interactions between several genes influencing wing shape, muscle function, and nervous system development, as well as gene expression regulation during development. Adam Spierer and David Rand in collaboration with colleagues at Brown University highlighted these interactions, which they report on March 18 in the journal Genetics PLOS.

Just as their name suggests, flies are unique flies that are responsible for flying for vital tasks, such as courtship, finding food and dispersing to new areas. But despite the importance of this ability, scientists know little about the genetics that underlie flight performance. In the new study, Spierer, Rand and colleagues performed a genetic study, called a genome-wide association study, to identify flight-related genes. Using 197 lines of genetically differentiated fruit flies, they tested the ability of the flies to pull out of a sudden fall. Then, using computational multiple methods, they linked the performance of the flies to different genes and genetic differences, as well as networks of gene-protein and protein-protein interactions.

The researchers found that many genes and genetic differences involved in flight performance are mapped to regions of the fly genome that determine wing shape, muscle activity and nervous system , and regulates whether other genes are turned on or off. They also identified a gene called pickpocket 23 (ppk23) that is key to regulating the interaction of these genes. The genes of the Pickpocket family are involved in proprioception – the sense of how the body moves in space – and in the detection of pheromones and other chemical signals.

This “picture” of the genetic variables that affect the flight performance of a fruit fly may be influenced by the study of flight in other insects. In addition, the researchers have shown the benefit of using multiple methods to mimic the complex genetic interactions that underlie traits such as flight, which leads to -enter several different genes.

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Peer review; Experimental study; Animals

In your cover use this URL to access the article which is freely available in Genetics PLOS:

magazines http: //.plos.org /plosgenetics /article? id =10.1371 /iris.pgen.1008887

Citation: Spierer AN, Mossman JA, Smith SP, Crawford L, Ramachandran S, Rand DM (2021) Natural variation in neurodevelopmental gene regulation alters flight performance in Drosophila. PLoS Genet 17 (3): e1008887. https: //doi.org /10.1371 /iris.pgen.1008887

Funding: This work and ANS are supported by National Institutes of Health R01 GM067862 (to DMR). LC is supported by grants from P20GM109035 (COBRE Center for Computational Biology of Human Diseases; PI Rand) and P20GM103645 (COBRE Center for Central Nervous; PI Sanes) from NIH NIGMS, 2U10CA180794-06 from NIH NCI and Dana Cancer Institute Farber (PIs Gray and Gatsonis), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and David & Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. SPS is a trainee in Brown University’s Predoctoral Training Program in Biological Data Science, supported by NIH T32 GM128596-02. This work was also supported by the US National Institutes of Health R01 GM118652 (to SR), and SR acknowledges additional support from the CAREER DBI-1452622 Award from the National Science Foundation. The funders were not involved in the design of a study, the collection and analysis of data, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have stated that there are no competing interests.