Richards Christopher D, Burke Richard
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
Arch Biochem Biophys. 2016 Dec 1;611:142-149. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2016.07.015. Epub 2016 Jul 22.
The core zinc transport machinery is well conserved between invertebrates and mammals, with the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster having clear homologues of all major groups of mammalian ZIP and ZNT transport genes. Functional characterization of several of the fly genes has revealed functional conservation between related fly and mammalian zinc transporters in some but not all cases, indicating that Drosophila is a useful model for examining mammalian zinc metabolism. Furthermore, Drosophila research, sometimes quite serendipitously, has provided novel insights into the function of zinc transporters and into zinc-related pathologies, which are highlighted here. Finally, the future research potential of the fly in nutrient metabolism is explored, with reference to emerging experimental technologies.
核心锌转运机制在无脊椎动物和哺乳动物之间高度保守，果蝇（黑腹果蝇）拥有哺乳动物所有主要ZIP和ZNT转运基因家族的明确同源物。对果蝇的几个基因进行功能表征后发现，相关果蝇和哺乳动物锌转运体之间在某些但并非所有情况下都存在功能保守性，这表明果蝇是研究哺乳动物锌代谢的有用模型。此外，果蝇研究有时相当意外地为锌转运体的功能以及与锌相关的病理学提供了新的见解，本文将重点介绍这些内容。最后，参考新兴的实验技术，探讨了果蝇在营养代谢方面未来的研究潜力。
