Table Of ContentAdvances in Experimental Medicine and Biology  1076
Masamitsu Yamaguchi   E  ditor 
Drosophila 
Models for 
Human 
Diseases
Advances in Experimental Medicine 
and Biology
Volume 1076
Editorial Board
IRUN R. COHEN, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
ABEL LAJTHA, N.S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, 
NY, USA
JOHN D. LAMBRIS, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
RODOLFO PAOLETTI, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
NIMA REZAEI, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Children’s Medical 
Center Hospital, Tehran, Iran
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5584
Masamitsu Yamaguchi
Editor
Drosophila Models  
for Human Diseases
Editor
Masamitsu Yamaguchi
Department of Applied Biology
Kyoto Institute of Technology
Kyoto, Japan
ISSN 0065-2598          ISSN 2214-8019  (electronic)
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
ISBN 978-981-13-0528-3        ISBN 978-981-13-0529-0  (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0529-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947577
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Preface
 
Fifteen years ago when I gave a talk on “Drosophila models for human dis-
eases” to medical doctors, they were not particularly interested in this sub-
ject. They said that even for mouse models it was hard to interpret the results, 
so that flies must be even more difficult. When I gave the equivalent talk to 
Drosophila communities at a similar time, they were also not very interested 
in the subject of “Drosophila models for human diseases.” They were more 
interested in basic biological and/or developmental processes and evolution-
ary genetics. However, now the situation has dramatically changed. Facilities 
keeping transgenic and knockout mice are all full in many universities and 
institutes all over the world and medical scientists are starting to look for 
animal models that can substitute for, or complement, mouse models. The 
Drosophilists have also realized the great potential in using Drosophila mod-
els for medical science. Drosophila is now attractive to scientists in various 
fields as a useful and highly tractable model organism for studying human 
diseases. Most biological pathways and physical and neurological properties 
are highly conserved between humans and Drosophila and nearly 75% of 
human disease-causing genes have a functional homologue in Drosophila. 
We  can  therefore  Recycle  the  knowledge  and  data  accumulated  with 
Drosophila for studies of human diseases. The costs involved in experimenta-
tion with Drosophila are relatively low (Reasonable price) compared to 
mouse and other rodent models. The life cycle and life-span of Drosophila 
are much shorter than that of the mouse so that researchers can perform 
experiments more Rapidly. Many genetic and experimental tools have been 
developed in Drosophila to examine gene function, genetic interactions, and 
environmental influences. Moreover, statistical analyses with large number of 
offspring in Drosophila can make the data obtained Reliable. The Drosophila 
model can thus provide a 4R platform for studies of human diseases.
v
vi Preface
This book provides information about various Drosophila models for 
human diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, repeat 
expansion disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Charcot-Marie-Tooth dis-
ease, muscular dystrophy, cancer, leukemia, diseases of replication/repair 
genes, diabetes, and so on. This knowledge is useful for scientists and gradu-
ate students in the field of Applied Biology, Pharmaceutical Science, and 
Medicine. In the first chapter, specific and commonly used Drosophila tech-
niques will be provided so that readers can easily understand the subsequent 
sections. In addition, for many of the following chapters, the authors provide 
a section dealing with protocols commonly used in their laboratories related 
to each subject. This is useful for beginners who want to start using Drosophila 
as a model for their studies on human disease. The last chapter introduces a 
unique approach by designers to develop a screening kit for medicine using 
the Drosophila model. This kind of multidisciplinary approach opens new 
possibilities for the studies of human diseases using Drosophila models.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the international grants that were 
helpful to establish international networks to produce this book. The JSPS 
Core-to-Core Program, Asia-Africa Science Platforms, the JSPS Program for 
Advancing Strategic International Networks to Accelerate the Circulation of 
Talented Researchers (Grant No. S2802), the JSPS Japan-UK collaborative 
research, the JSPS Japan-Vietnam collaborative research, and the JSPS 
Japan-Korea collaborative research. I would also like to acknowledge invalu-
able help from Project Co-ordinator, Kripa Guruprasad and Project Manager, 
Kandrakota Maadhuri
Kyoto Institute of Technology  Masamitsu Yamaguchi
Kyoto, Japan
Contents
1    Drosophila as a Model Organism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1
Masamitsu Yamaguchi and Hideki Yoshida
2    Adult Intestine Aging Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11
Koji Takeda, Takashi Okumura, Kiichiro Taniguchi,  
and Takashi Adachi-Yamada
3    Alzheimer’s Disease Model System Using Drosophila . . . . . . . .   25
Leo Tsuda and Young-Mi Lim
4    Parkinson’s Disease Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   41
Vuu My Dung and Dang Thi Phuong Thao
5    Repeat Expansion Disease Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   63
Morio Ueyama and Yoshitaka Nagai
6    Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   79
Yumiko Azuma, Ikuko Mizuta, Takahiko Tokuda,  
and Toshiki Mizuno
7    Drosophila Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Models . . . . . . . . . . .   97
Masamitsu Yamaguchi and Hiroshi Takashima
8    Drosophila as a Model to Gain Insight into the Role  
of lncRNAs in Neurological Disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  119
Luca Lo Piccolo
9    Muscular Dystrophy Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  147
Saranyapin Potikanond, Wutigri Nimlamool,  
Jasprien Noordermeer, and Lee G. Fradkin
 10   Drosophila As a Cancer Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  173
Masato Enomoto, Carmen Siow, and Tatsushi Igaki
 11   From Drosophila Blood Cells to Human Leukemia . . . . . . . . . .  195
Manon Boulet, Marion Miller, Laurence Vandel,  
and Lucas Waltzer
vii
viii Contents
 12   Diseases Associated with Mutation of Replication  
and Repair Proteins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  215
Sue Cotterill
 13   Drosophila Models to Investigate Insulin Action  
and Mechanisms Underlying Human Diabetes Mellitus . . . . . .  235
Yoshihiro H. Inoue, Hiroka Katsube, and Yukiko Hinami
 14   Metabolomics: State-of-the-Art Technologies  
and Applications on Drosophila melanogaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  257
Phan Nguyen Thuy An and Eiichiro Fukusaki
 15   Humanized Flies and Resources for Cross-Species Study . . . . .  277
Toshiyuki Takano-Shimizu-Kouno and Takashi Ohsako
 16   Designs for Flies + of Mice and Men: Design Approaches 
to Drosophila melanogaster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  289
Julia Cassim, Frank Kolkman, and Marcel Helmer
 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  307
About the Authors
Takashi Adachi-Yamada received his PhD from Nagoya University and is 
 
a Professor in the Department of Life Science, Gakushuin University.
Yumiko Azuma received her MD, PhD from Kyoto Prefectural University 
 
of Medicine and is an Assistant Professor at Kyoto Prefectural University of 
Medicine.
Julia Cassim received her MPhil from the International Centre for Cultural 
 
and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University, and is a Professor at KYOTO 
Design Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology.
Sue Cotterill received her PhD from Imperial College, London, and is a 
 
Reader in Molecular Biology at St Georges University of London.
Eiichiro  Fukusaki received  his  PhD  from  Osaka  University  and  is  a 
 
Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University.
Tatsushi Igaki received his PhD from Osaka University and is a Professor 
 
at Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University.
Yoshihiro H. Inoue received his PhD from Waseda University and is an 
 
Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Insect Biomedical 
Research, Kyoto Institute of Technology.
Yoshitaka Nagai received his MD, PhD from Osaka University and is a 
 
Professor at Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University.
Luca Lo Piccolo received his PhD from University of Palermo and is an 
 
Assistant Professor at Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University.
Saranyapin Potikanond received her MD from Chiang Mai University, MS 
 
from Free University of Brussels, and PhD from Leiden University Medical 
Center and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, 
Chiang Mai University.
ix