View Program - 63rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference

The Drosophila midgut is a valuable model tissue in many ways, one of which is its utility for characterization and manipulation of cells involved in intestinal endocrine signaling. As in other organisms, the Drosophila intestine contains a group of secretory cells called enteroendocrine cells. This unique group of cells releases peptide hormones to induce systemic effects that allow the whole organism to respond to changing conditions in the gut. Enteroendocrine cells are often divided into subcategories based on the profile of peptides a cell secretes. The diversity of these cells requires methods of identifying, targeting, and manipulating subpopulations of them to clearly understand the functions of discrete subgroups. The split-GAL4 system provides a promising avenue to address this issue and previous studies have identified many combinations of split-GAL4 drivers that target small groups of enteroendocrine cells. Our current work investigates select pairs of split-GAL4 drivers and characterizes the cells reported by these pairs using the expression profiles of peptide-encoding genes reported by lexA knock-in drivers known to target common, midgut-secreted peptides. Using this technique, we are able to characterize the subset(s) of enteroendocrine cells that a split-GAL4 pair reports. We also test various double reporters containing both UAS and lexAop components and analyze the strengths and weakness of these reporters when compared to each other. Overall, this work provides evaluation of lexA drivers for select peptides, detailed characterization of split-GAL4 driver pairs that allow for manipulation of known subpopulations of enteroendocrine cells, and a framework for future, straightforward characterization of such pairs not characterized in this study.

Identifying split-GAL4 drivers for targeting and manipulating enteroendocrine cells in the Drosophila midgut