Detecting Stress Granules in Drosophila Neurons

Fabienne de Graeve (1) , Nadia Formicola (1) , Kavya Vinayan Pushpalatha (1) , Akira Nakamura (2) , Eric Debreuve (3) , Xavier Descombes (3) , Florence Besse (1, 3)

1 IBV - Institut de Biologie Valrose
2 Kumamoto University
3 MORPHEME - Morphologie et Images

Stress granules (SGs) are cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein condensates that dynamically and reversibly assemble in response to acute or chronic stress. They are thought to contribute to the adaptive stress response by storing translationally inactive mRNAs as well as signaling molecules. Recent work has shown that SG composition and properties depend on both stress and cell types, and that neurons exhibit a complex SG proteome and a strong vulnerability to mutations in SG proteins. Drosophila has emerged as a powerful genetically tractable organism where to study the physiological regulation and functions of SGs in normal and pathological contexts. In this chapter, we describe a protocol enabling quantitative analysis of SG properties in both larval and adult Drosophila CNS samples. In this protocol, fluorescently-tagged SGs are induced upon acute ex vivo stress or chronic in vivo stress, imaged at high-resolution via confocal microscopy and detected automatically, usinusing a dedicated software.

Mots clés: Drosophila melanogaster; automated detection; fluorescent stress granule proteins; confocal imaging; central nervous system

Domaines: Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Organisation et fonctions cellulaires [q-bio.SC]

Fabienne de Graeve, Nadia Formicola, Kavya Vinayan Pushpalatha, Akira Nakamura, Eric Debreuve, et al.. Detecting Stress Granules in Drosophila Neurons. The Integrated Stress Response: Methods and Protocols, Springer, 2022, Methods in Molecular Biology, 978-1-0716-1975-9. ⟨hal-03449962⟩