Biology subjects

Francisco, A. P.

Publications and source records attributed to Francisco, A. P..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Ovary-Derived Signals Align Protein Appetite with Oogenesis

Maintaining organismal homeostasis requires mechanisms that coordinate the metabolic needs of individual organs with whole animal nutrient intake. Although nutrient sensors and central pathways regulating hunger have been extensively characterized, how peripheral organ physiology influences nutrient specific appetites remains poorly understood. Here, we identify a previously unrecognized signalling axis, originated in the ovary, that modulates yeast appetite in Drosophila melanogaster. Through a targeted germline RNAi screen, we find that specific perturbations in oogenesis consistently and selectively increase yeast appetite. The manipulations increasing yeast appetite disrupt oogenesis progression, producing a shared signature of increased vitellogenic follicle accumulation and reduced number of mature (stage14) oocytes. This shift is accompanied by decreased expression of the relaxin-like hormone Dilp8, and loss of Dilp8 recapitulates the feeding phenotype. We show that this ovarian regulation of nutrient specific appetite is independent of amino acid state but requires mating, indicating integration with Sex Peptide-mediated reproductive activation. Together, our findings uncover a novel mechanism that couples oogenesis progression to nutrient selection, emphasizing the importance of the ovary as an active regulator of whole organism nutritional decisions. This work provides a conceptual framework for how reproductive tissues communicate their physiological demands to other organs and raises the possibility that analogous ovary-derived signals may shape nutrient specific appetite and metabolic states in other animals. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=163 SRC="FIGDIR/small/711327v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (47K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@153c136org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b1e6dcorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@abaab3org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@53f725_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG Created in BioRender. Francisco, A. (2026) https://BioRender.com/pwalhtl

physiology↗

bioRxiv2024

Lack of Single Amino Acids Transcriptionally Remodels Sensory Systems to Enhance the Intake of Protein and Microbiota

Adequate intake of dietary essential amino acids (eAAs) is vital for protein synthesis and metabolism. Any single eAA deprivation is sufficient to increase protein intake in Drosophila melanogaster. How such nutritional "needs" are transformed into behavioral "wants" remains poorly understood. We derived transcriptomes from the heads of flies deprived of individual eAAs to identify mechanisms by which this is achieved. We found that, while specific eAA deprivations have unique effects on gene expression, a large set of changes are shared across deprivations. We show that Or92a upregulation upon eAA deprivation increases the exploitation of yeast, the main protein source of flies. Furthermore, Ir76a upregulation was crucial for feeding on Lactobacillus, a gut bacterium that ameliorates the fitness of eAA-deprived flies. Our work uncovers common and unique transcriptional changes induced by individual eAA deprivations in an animal and reveals novel mechanisms underlying the organisms behavioral and physiological response to eAA challenges.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

marmite defines a novel conserved neuropeptide family mediating nutritional homeostasis

Neuropeptides play a key role in regulating physiology and behavior, including feeding. While animals modify their food choices to respond to the lack of specific nutrients, the mechanisms mediating nutrient-specific appetites remain unclear. Here, we identified marmite (mmt), a previously uncharacterized Drosophila melanogaster gene encoding a secreted peptide that controls feeding decisions. We show that both mmt mutants and neuronal knockdown of mmt specifically increased the intake of proteinaceous food, whereas neuronal mmt overexpression reduced protein appetite. mmt expression is also higher in animals maintained on amino acid rich food, suggesting that mmt encodes a protein-specific satiety signal. Mmt is expressed in a small number of neurons in the adult nervous system, with a single pair of neurons modulating protein appetite. Finally, sequence and phylogenetic analysis showed that mmt is part of an ancient and conserved family of neuropeptides, including the poorly understood vertebrate neuropeptides B and W genes. Functional experiments showed that mmt and vertebrate NPB and NPW modulate food intake in both flies and mice. Therefore, we discovered an ancient family of neuropeptides involved in controlling feeding across phyla.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Metabolic cross-feeding allows a gut microbial community to overcome detrimental diets and alter host behaviour

The impact of commensal bacteria on the host arises from complex microbial-diet-host interactions. Mapping metabolic interactions in gut microbial communities is therefore key to understand how the microbiome influences the host. Here we use an interdisciplinary approach including isotope-resolved metabolomics to show that in Drosophila melanogaster, Aceto-bacter pomorum (Ap) and Lactobacillus plantarum (Lp) establish a syntrophic relationship to overcome detrimental host diets and identify Ap as the bacterium altering the hosts feeding decisions. Specifically, we show that Lp generates lactate which is used by Ap to produce and provide amino acids that are essential to Lp allowing it to grow in imbalanced diets. Lactate is also necessary and sufficient for Ap to alter the flys protein appetite. Our data show that gut bacterial communities use metabolic interactions to become resilient to detrimental host diets and to ensure the constant flow of metabolites used by effector bacteria to alter host behaviour.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

GrapeTree: Visualization of core genomic relationships among 100,000 bacterial pathogens

O_LICurrent methods struggle to reconstruct and visualise the genomic relationships of [≥]100,000 bacterial genomes.\nC_LIO_LIGrapeTree facilitates the analyses of allelic profiles from 10,000s of core genomes within a web browser window.\nC_LIO_LIGrapeTree implements a novel minimum spanning tree algorithm to reconstruct genetic relationships despite missing data together with a static \"GrapeTree Layout\" algorithm to render interactive visualisations of large trees.\nC_LIO_LIGrapeTree is a stand-along package for investigating Newick trees plus associated metadata and is also integrated into EnteroBase to facilitate cutting edge navigation of genomic relationships among >160,000 genomes from bacterial pathogens.\nC_LIO_LIThe GrapeTree package was released under the GPL v3.0 Licence.\nC_LI

bioinformatics↗