68325
Quantifying the Effects of Dificiencies of Klarsicht, ΔHalo, and Midway proteins in
Embryonic Lipid Droplet Deposition
Rishin Patel
Mentor: Steven Gross
Lipid droplets are the main store of lipids in eukaryotic cells. In Drosophila, they play a crucial role in
metabolism during early development. Moreover, it was recently suggested that they might act as a
buffering surface that could release maternally provided proteins only when needed. Molecular
motor-based active transport of lipid droplets in the embryos has been shown to be developmentally
regulated. I proposed that the proteins involved in developmental transport of embryonic lipids also
control the deposition of lipids into the egg via the nurse cells at an earlier stage. I investigated the
extent of protein control on lipid deposition by developing a method for in situ quantification of the
amount of lipid within embryos of different mutant backgrounds. The amount of lipids in halo,
klarsicht (klar A) and Midway (mdyQx25) mutant backgrounds was compared to wildtype (Or-R). halo
and KlarA embryos have previously been shown to alter lipid droplet distribution within the embryo
at early stages of development, and Midway (mdyQx25) was shown to have reduced levels of neutral
lipids in the oocyte. These results show changed lipid levels among these mutants consistent with the
notion that these proteins might also play a role in the early lipid deposition in the egg. The role of
these proteins in lipid deposition will be further explored by detecting changes in their concentration
and interactions at various stages of development to determine whether varied protein activity
throughout these stages causes altered lipid deposition.