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Article Addendum
Drosophila Atg7: Required for stress resistance, longevity and neuronal homeostasis, but not for metamorphosis
Gábor Juhász and Thomas P. Neufeld
Volume 4, Issue 31 April 2008
Pages: 357 - 358
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Autophagy, the lysosomal degradation and recycling of self material, has been implicated in a number of developmental and pathological conditions including aging, cancer, neurodegeneration, and insect metamorphosis. Surprisingly, Atg7 mutant flies are able to complete metamorphosis with only a slight delay, despite strongly reduced autophagy levels. Similarly, developmental elimination of the larval midgut proceeds with normal morphology, suggesting that animals can compensate for reduced autophagy during development. Atg7 mutant adults are hypersensitive to starvation and oxidative stress, live shorter, and accumulate ubiquitin-positive aggregates in the brain that lead to a progressive decline of neuronal function and cell death. These results suggest that in Drosophila, normal levels of autophagy may play a more important role in the homeostasis of certain terminally differentiated cells and stress survival than during development.
Addendum to: Juhász G, Érdi B, Sass M, Neufeld TP. Atg7-dependent autophagy promotes neuronal health, stress tolerance, and longevity but is dispensable for metamorphosis in Drosophila. Genes Dev 2007; 21:3061-6.
Authors
Gábor Juhász
Eötvös Loránd University
Thomas P. Neufeld
University of Minnesota
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.
