title: A fly's eye view of zinc homeostasis: Novel insights into the genetic control of zinc metabolism from Drosophila.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Electronic address: richard.burke@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Burke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020895:Enterocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D017136:Ion Transport; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains / Q000378:metabolism; D015032:Zinc / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C097862:Zip protein, Drosophila; C017800:zinc-binding protein; D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains; D015032:Zinc
keywords: Drosophila; Ion transport; ZIP; ZNT; Zinc homeostasis