Speaker: Maggie Sodders, graduate student in Hua Bai lab

Major: Genetics and Genomics

Title: "The Role of Glial Peroxisome in Neuron-Glia Communication in Drosophila"

Abstract: Peroxisome function in glial cells has been shown to impact neuronal functions. In the present study, we aim to elucidate the mechanism behind peroxisome-mediated glia-neuron communication using Drosophila as a model organism. I used the UAS-gal4 system to drive RNAi knockdown or overexpression in either glia tissue or motor neurons. The morphology of the axons directly preceding the abdominal neuromuscular junction (NMJ) was visualized using confocal microscopy and the axonal area and volume was quantified via ImageJ. Glial-specific knockdown of peroxisome import protein, Pex5, using pan-glial driver repo-gal4 resulted in increased axonal area and volume as compared to the control. Consistent with our previous work showing defective peroxisomes upregulate inflammatory cytokine upd3 and JAK-STAT signaling, overexpression of upd3 in glia increases axonal volume and area. We further show that neuronal-specific activation of the JAK-STAT pathway through hop overexpression results in an increase in axon size. Taken together, our findings suggest that impairment of peroxisomes in the glia impacts axonal morphology and potentially function via inflammatory response, specifically the JAK-STAT pathway.