From flies to humans: how fly genetics can help us understand cardiovascular biology

From Flies to Humans: using Drosophila genetics to study cardiovascular physiology

Our understanding of cardiovascular disease is limited by our lack of knowledge about the genes that control our cardiovascular biology. Many genes evolved millions of years ago in the hearts and circulatory systems of simple organisms such as fruit flies (Drosophila). Performing experiments and manipulating these ‘evolutionarily conserved’ genes in flies is easier and quicker than in mice and rats. Dr Paul S Hartley at the University of Edinburgh is aiming to study a gene in flies called Bteb2 that shares many similarities with a family of human genes called Krüppel-like factors (KLFs). In both flies and mammals, mutations in these genes affect the development of the heart and kidney, as well as their function in adulthood. Dr Paul S Hartley hopes to broaden understanding of how the KLFs are controlled and how they affect cardiovascular physiology.