Brief Communication | Published:

Activation of transposable elements during aging and neuronal decline in Drosophila

Nature Neuroscience 16, 529–531 (2013) | Download Citation

Subjects

Abstract

We found that several transposable elements were highly active in Drosophila brain during normal aging. In addition, we found that mutations in Drosophila Argonaute 2 (Ago2) resulted in exacerbated transposon expression in the brain, progressive and age-dependent memory impairment, and shortened lifespan. These findings suggest that transposon activation may contribute to age-dependent loss of neuronal function.

Access optionsAccess options

Rent or Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

from$8.99

Rent or Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. 1.

    , & Genome Res. 18, 343–358 (2008).

  2. 2.

    & Cell 135, 23–35 (2008).

  3. 3.

    et al. Nature 435, 903–910 (2005).

  4. 4.

    et al. Nature 460, 1127–1131 (2009).

  5. 5.

    et al. Nature 479, 534–537 (2011).

  6. 6.

    & J. Mol. Biol. 392, 813–822 (2009).

  7. 7.

    et al. Nature 468, 443–446 (2010).

  8. 8.

    , , & J. Clin. Virol. 47, 136–142 (2010).

  9. 9.

    et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108, 20382–20387 (2011).

  10. 10.

    , , & Ann. Neurol. 69, 141–151 (2011).

  11. 11.

    et al. Nature 471, 325–330 (2011).

  12. 12.

    et al. Hum. Mol. Genet. 21, 57–65 (2012).

  13. 13.

    , , , & PLoS ONE 7, e44099 (2012).

  14. 14.

    & Nat. Rev. Genet. 12, 19–31 (2011).

  15. 15.

    , , & Genetics 180, 1367–1378 (2008).

  16. 16.

    , & Neuron 35, 951–960 (2002).

  17. 17.

    & Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 23, 84–91 (2013).

  18. 18.

    et al. FEBS Lett. 585, 3079–3085 (2011).

  19. 19.

    et al. Nature 482, 519–523 (2012).

  20. 20.

    , & Curr. Biol. 17, 637–642 (2007).

  21. 21.

    , , & Cell 79, 35–47 (1994).

  22. 22.

    et al. Curr. Biol. 22, 608–614 (2012).

  23. 23.

    et al. PLoS Comput. Biol. 4, e1000026 (2008).

  24. 24.

    , , , & Genes Dev. 8, 2046–2057 (1994).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank B. Czech and G. Hannon (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) for the Ago2414 and loki RNAi fly lines, F.-B. Gao (University of Massachusetts Medical School) for the Ago251B fly line, B. Dickson (Institute of Molecular Pathology) for the UAS∷Ago2 transgenic fly line, M. Welte (University of Rochester) for the Ago2454 fly line, T. Lee (Janelia Farm Research Campus) for the pTub-GAL80 in Casper4 plasmid, J. Boek (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) for the 7B3 hybridoma cell line, and C. Bautista at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory shared resources for ascites production. We thank T. Russel for technical assistance in construction of the gypsy reporter system. We also are grateful to S. Waddell, J. Beshel, M. Cressy, B. Czech, G. Hannon, K. Honegger, J. Huang, M. Kernan, R. Martienssen, H. Qin, C. Sandoval, Y. Shuai, G. Turner, T. Zador and Y. Zhong for helpful discussions or comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by US National Institutes of Health grant TR01(5R01NS067690-03) and DART NeuroScience LLC awarded to J.D. S.G. received additional support from the Shakespeare Fellowship and the Ernst Göhner Foundation.

Author information

    • Wanhe Li
    •  & Lisa Prazak

    These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA.

    • Wanhe Li
    • , Lisa Prazak
    • , Nabanita Chatterjee
    •  & Josh Dubnau

  2. Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.

    • Wanhe Li

  3. Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

    • Servan Grüninger

  4. Watson School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA.

    • Servan Grüninger
    • , Lisa Krug
    •  & Josh Dubnau

  5. Magistère de Génétique Graduate Program at Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France.

    • Delphine Theodorou

Authors

  1. Search for Wanhe Li in:

  2. Search for Lisa Prazak in:

  3. Search for Nabanita Chatterjee in:

  4. Search for Servan Grüninger in:

  5. Search for Lisa Krug in:

  6. Search for Delphine Theodorou in:

  7. Search for Josh Dubnau in:

Contributions

W.L., L.P. and J.D. conceived and designed the project and analyzed the experiments. W.L. performed the behavior experiments and western blots. The QPCR and lifespan analyses were performed by L.P. with assistance from W.L., L.K. and D.T. L.P., N.C. and S.G. did the imaging. W.L., L.P. and J.D. wrote the manuscript with comments from the other authors.

Competing interests

This work was funded in part by DART NeuroScience LLC via a research grant to J.D.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josh Dubnau.

Supplementary information

PDF files

  1. 1.

    Supplementary Text and Figures

    Supplementary Figures 1–7 and Supplementary Tables 1 and 2

To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.

About this article

Publication history

Received

Accepted

Published

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3368

Further reading Further reading