ArticlePLoS biology2008
Drosophila neurotrophins reveal a common mechanism for nervous system formation.
Article in PLoS biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- The neurotrophin DNT-2 via the Toll-2 receptor regulates neuronal survival and morphology during visual system development.Biology open · 2026Article
- Octopamine instructs head direction plasticity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Toll-1-dependent immune evasion induced by fungal infection leads to cell loss in the Drosophila brain.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Neurotrophins and their receptors in the peripheral nervous system and non-nervous tissue of fish.Fish physiology and biochemistry · 2025Review
- The non-nuclear DifB NF-κB isoform affects courtship, circadian, and locomotor behavior in adultFrontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- A neurotrophin functioning with a Toll regulates structural plasticity in a dopaminergic circuit.eLife · 2024Article
- The astrocyte-enriched geneFly · 2024Article
- Cephalic ganglia transcriptomics of the American cockroach Periplaneta americana (Blattodea: Blattidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2024Article
- Exploring the Gene Expression and Plasma Protein Levels of HSP90, HSP60, and GDNF in Multiple Sclerosis Patients and Healthy Controls.Current issues in molecular biology · 2024Article
- Positive Allosteric Modulators of Trk Receptors for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Maintaining Toll signaling iniScience · 2024Article
- Damage sensing mediated by serine proteases Hayan and Persephone for Toll pathway activation in apoptosis-deficient flies.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Review
- Profiling neurotransmitter-evoked glial responses by RNA-sequencing analysis.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2023Article
- Review
- GDNF to the rescue: GDNF delivery effects on motor neurons and nerves, and muscle re-innervation after peripheral nerve injuries.Neural regeneration research · 2022Review
- Insect Behavioral Change and the Potential Contributions of Neuroinflammation-A Call for Future Research.Genes · 2021Review
- The Toll Route to Structural Brain Plasticity.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Review
- GDNF synthesis, signaling, and retrograde transport in motor neurons.Cell and tissue research · 2020Review
- Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Neurotrophic interactions occur in Drosophila, but to date, no neurotrophic factor had been found. Neurotrophins are the main vertebrate secreted signalling molecules that link nervous system structure and function: they regulate neuronal survival, targeting, synaptic plasticity, memory and cognition. We have identified a neurotrophic factor in flies, Drosophila Neurotrophin (DNT1), structurally related to all known neurotrophins and highly conserved in insects. By investigating with genetics the consequences of removing DNT1 or adding it in excess, we show that DNT1 maintains neuronal survival, as more neurons die in DNT1 mutants and expression of DNT1 rescues naturally occurring cell death, and it enables targeting by motor neurons. We show that Spätzle and a further fly neurotrophin superfamily member, DNT2, also have neurotrophic functions in flies. Our findings imply that most likely a neurotrophin was present in the common ancestor of all bilateral organisms, giving rise to invertebrate and vertebrate neurotrophins through gene or whole-genome duplications. This work provides a missing link between aspects of neuronal function in flies and vertebrates, and it opens the opportunity to use Drosophila to investigate further aspects of neurotrophin function and to model related diseases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.