Browsing by Author "Huang, Cheng-Wen"

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    Reduced Gut Acidity Induces an Obese-Like Phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster and in Mice
    (PLOS, 2015-10-05) Lin, Wei-Sheng; Huang, Cheng-Wen; Yen, Jui-Hung; Kuo, Ping- Chang; Yeh, Sheng-Rong; Lin, Hung-Yu; Fu, Tsai-Feng; Wu, Ming-Shiang; Wang, Horng- Dar; Wang, Pei-Yu; Song, You-Sheng; Department of Microbiology & Immunology, IU School of Medicine
    In order to identify genes involved in stress and metabolic regulation, we carried out a Drosophila P-element-mediated mutagenesis screen for starvation resistance. We isolated a mutant, m2, that showed a 23% increase in survival time under starvation conditions. The P-element insertion was mapped to the region upstream of the vha16-1 gene, which encodes the c subunit of the vacuolar-type H+-ATPase. We found that vha16-1 is highly expressed in the fly midgut, and that m2 mutant flies are hypomorphic for vha16-1 and also exhibit reduced midgut acidity. This deficit is likely to induce altered metabolism and contribute to accelerated aging, since vha16-1 mutant flies are short-lived and display increases in body weight and lipid accumulation. Similar phenotypes were also induced by pharmacological treatment, through feeding normal flies and mice with a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (acetazolamide) or proton pump inhibitor (PPI, lansoprazole) to suppress gut acid production. Our study may thus provide a useful model for investigating chronic acid suppression in patients.
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    Tequila Regulates Insulin-Like Signaling and Extends Life Span in Drosophila melanogaster
    (Oxford University Press, 2015-12) Huang, Cheng-Wen; Wang, Horng-Dar; Bai, Hua; Wu, Ming-Shiang; Yen, Jui-Hung; Tatar, Marc; Fu, Tsai-Feng; Wang, Pei-Yu; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, IU School of Medicine
    The aging process is a universal phenomenon shared by all living organisms. The identification of longevity genes is important in that the study of these genes is likely to yield significant insights into human senescence. In this study, we have identified Tequila as a novel candidate gene involved in the regulation of longevity in Drosophila melanogaster. We have found that a hypomorphic mutation of Tequila (Teq(f01792)), as well as cell-specific downregulation of Tequila in insulin-producing neurons of the fly, significantly extends life span. Tequila deficiency-induced life-span extension is likely to be associated with reduced insulin-like signaling, because Tequila mutant flies display several common phenotypes of insulin dysregulation, including reduced circulating Drosophila insulin-like peptide 2 (Dilp2), reduced Akt phosphorylation, reduced body size, and altered glucose homeostasis. These observations suggest that Tequila may confer life-span extension by acting as a modulator of Drosophila insulin-like signaling.