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Science 10 May 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5570, pp. 1118 - 1120
DOI: 10.1126/science.1070058
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Reports

Ablation of Insulin-Producing Neurons in Flies: Growth and Diabetic Phenotypes

Eric J. Rulifson,13* Seung K. Kim,12 Roel Nusse13

In the fruit fly Drosophila, four insulin genes are coexpressed in small clusters of cells [insulin-producing cells (IPCs)] in the brain. Here, we show that ablation of these IPCs causes developmental delay, growth retardation, and elevated carbohydrate levels in larval hemolymph. All of the defects were reversed by ectopic expression of a Drosophila insulin transgene. On the basis of these functional data and the observation that IPCs release insulin into the circulatory system, we conclude that brain IPCs are the main systemic supply of insulin during larval growth. We propose that IPCs and pancreatic islet beta  cells are functionally analogous and may have evolved from a common ancestral insulin-producing neuron. Interestingly, the phenotype of flies lacking IPCs includes certain features of diabetes mellitus.

1 Department of Developmental Biology,
2 Department of Medicine (Oncology Division),
3 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Beckman Center B300, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5329, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rulifson{at}cmgm.stanford.edu

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