The Lipophorin Receptor of Drosophila melanogaster

Animals carry lipids such as hydrocarbons, fats, and sterols throughout their circulatory systems bound to a carrier protein known as lipophorin. The lipophorin receptor has been characterized in locusts, mosquitoes and cockroaches yet little is known about it in Drosophila melanogaster. An antibody against the eleven variants of the lipophorin receptor was developed and tested. Although this was the main feature of the work, several preliminary experiments using RNA interference were conducted to determine the effects of lipophorin receptor. Flies whose lipophorin receptor proteins were knocked down were found to have no major differences in locomotor activity in total darkness suggesting that their circadian rhythms are unaffected. The same flies were found to have extensive differences in their cuticular hydrocarbon profiles as compared with wild‐type flies. Whole‐mount tissue staining of Drosophila adult brains revealed that several cells in the central nervous system are immunoreactive with the anti‐Lipophorin receptor antibody.MAS