31 Flavors of Drosophila Rab proteins

• Published in: Genetics (Austin) Vol. 176; no. 2
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jun, Schulze, Karen L., Hiesinger, P. Robin, Suyama, Kaye, Wang, Stream, Fish, Matthew, Acar, Melih, Hoskins, Roger A., Bellen, HugoJ, Scott, Matthew P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 03.04.2007
• Subjects: CARGO; DROSOPHILA; GENES; GENETICS; IN VIVO; MOTORS; PROTEINS; REDUNDANCY; TRANSPORT; VERTEBRATES
• ISSN: 0016-6731; 1943-2631

Rab proteins are small GTPases that play important roles intransport of vesicle cargo and recruitment, association of motor andother proteins with vesicles, and docking and fusion of vesicles atdefined locations. In vertebrates, more than 75 Rab genes have beenidentified, some of which have been intensively studied for their rolesin endosome and synaptic vesicle trafficking. Recent studies of thefunctions of certain Rab proteins have revealed specific roles inmediating developmental signal transduction. We have begun a systematicgenetic study of the 33 Rab genes in Drosophila. Most of the fly proteinsare clearly related to specific vertebrate proteins. We report here thecreation of a set of transgenic fly lines that allow spatially andtemporally regulated expression of Drosophila Rab proteins. We generatedfluorescent protein-tagged wild-type, dominant-negative, andconstitutively active forms of 31 Drosophila Rab proteins. We describeDrosophila Rab expression patterns during embryogenesis, the subcellularlocalization of some Rab proteins, and comparisons of the localization ofwild-type, dominant-negative, and constitutively active forms of selectedRab proteins. The high evolutionary conservation and low redundancy ofDrosophila Rab proteins make these transgenic lines a useful toolkit forinvestigating Rab functions in vivo.