Highlight Publication April 2009

Padinjat R, Coessens E, Manifava M, Georgiev P, Pettitt T, Wood E, Garcia-Murillas I, Okkenhaug H, Trivedi D, Zhang Q, Razzaq A, Zaid O, Wakelam MJO, O'Kane CJ, Ktistakis NT (2009)
Rhabdomere biogenesis in Drosophila photoreceptors is acutely sensitive to phosphatidic acid levels
Journal of Cell Biology 185 129-145
http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200807027

Lay summary

In order to detect and respond to changes in their environment, animal cells have to "signal" or transmit these changes from the surface to the interior of the cell. This process referred to as signal transduction consists of a number of chemical reactions involving the organic constituents of the cell membrane. Our work is aimed at understanding the control of a very important component of these chemical reactions. The ultimate use of our understanding of normal animal physiology is that the findings should help in developing treatments for animal/human diseases in which these chemical reactions are defective and hence improve the quality of life for such individuals.

This research described in this paper demonstrates that an organic constituent of the cell, phosphatidic acid, previously thought to function only in a structural capacity contributing to the building block of the cell membrane, also has a function in communicating the instructions on how cell membranes in photoreceptors (neurons that help in detecting light-vision) should be designed and built.

Our work is performed using a simple model organism, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Although fruit flies look very different from mammals including humans, the fundamental organization of the chemistry of life in a fruit fly and mammal is similar. Thus in the long term, our work has implications for understanding related scientific questions in mammals and could be helpful in the context of diseases such as hereditary blindness and neurodegenerative disorders.

About the lead author

Raghu Padinjat joined the Babraham Institute in 2003 after completing a PhD the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, INDIA and postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge. Raghu's work at Babraham has contributed to the understanding of how information is organized and communicated within animal cells.