Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

All organisms, be they flies or people, have physical characteristics (phenotypes) that distinguish them from other flies, people, or that distinguish flies from people. These characteristics are, in part, the product of heritable differences (genotypes), but relatively little is known about the connection between genotype and phenotype. In many cases we can expect that a phenotype is the product of multiple genes interacting as a network. My research program investigates a network of metabolic enzymes in the fruit fly that share the cofactor, NADP, as a model system to explain genotype-phenotype connections in general. This grant application will describe two main aims that are the foundation of my long-term research program: Aim 1) Quantify interactions between NADP(H) network members in the fruit fly D. melanogaster. I will quantifying interactions between the NADP(H) enzymes using wild-caught and laboratory-engineered flies. The project will quantify interactions within the network across fly life stages and environmental conditions combining techniques from genetics and biochemistry. Aim 2) Determination of the level of constancy of observed interactions between NADP(H) enzymes across species. I will determinethe degree of similarity in the interactions between the NADP(H) enzymes, quantified in Aim 1, are across species. This will be done by comparing and contrasting associations and interactions among the enzymes between the closely related cosmopolitan fruit fly species D. melanogaster and D. simulans, and across a trio of fly species native to North America and common in Sudbury Ontario, D. affinis, D. naragansette and D. algonquin. Results from this comparison will directly improve our understanding of the consistency of networks across species and the utility of model organisms in general. The results from these two Aims will combine to further our understanding of metabolic networks, biological networks in general, and the constancy of network interactions across species.