Polyglutamine Atrophin provokes neurodegeneration in Drosophila

Dentatorubral-pallidoluysian Atrophy (DRPLA) is a human polyQ disease caused by the expansion of a CAG strech in the atrophin-1 (at-1) gene. In all vertebrates, a second atrophin gene (at-2) is present and it encodes a related protein void of polyQ tracks. In D.melanogaster there is one conserved Atrophin (Atro) gene, ubiquitously expressed, which contains all functional domains of vertebrate Atrophins, including two polyQ stretches. To understand to what extent transcriptional alterations cause neurodegeneration and are linked to the normal functions of Atrophin, we performed a genome wide transcriptional profiling in our Drosophila models, focusing on primary events that precede neurodegeneration.

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Napoletano F, Occhi S, Calamita P, Volpi V, Blanc E, Charroux B, Royet J, Fanto M