Effects of MsrA and MsrB During Anoxic Stress in Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster can withstand hours of oxygen deprivation (anoxia) by entering a protective coma called spreading depression. When oxygen is reintroduced to the cells, a burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causes oxidative damage. Methionine is susceptible to oxidation to form methionine sulfoxide. This oxidation is reversible where methionine sulfoxide reductase (Msr) A and B reduce the S and R enantiomers, respectively. In this study, MsrA and MsrB single deletion lines were exposed to one hour of anoxia and the Drosophila Activity Monitor (DAM) recorded their recovery times. RNA interference (RNAi) lines were used to mimic the effect of these deletion lines by ubiquitously knocking down their expression. My current data indicates that MsrA loss-of-function strains recover significantly faster than the MsrB loss-of-function lines with increasing age. Insight into the roles of Msr genes under anoxic stress could lead to a better understanding of how these genes contribute to aging.