Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders 'on the fly': insights from Drosophila

• Published in: Disease models & mechanisms Vol. 12; no. 5
• Main Authors: Coll-Tané, Mireia, Krebbers, Alina, Castells-Nobau, Anna, Zweier, Christiane, Schenck, Annette
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Company of Biologists Ltd 01-05-2019; The Company of Biologists
• Subjects: Animals; ASD; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - genetics; Autism Spectrum Disorder - pathology; Behavior; Brain; Brain research; Dros; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster - genetics; Drosophila melanogaster - physiology; Fruit fly; Gene Regulatory Networks; Genes; Genomics; Humans; Insects; Intellectual disabilities; Intellectual Disability - genetics; Intellectual Disability - pathology; Memory; Metabolism; Morphology; Mutation; Nervous system; Neurodevelopment; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Neurosciences; Proteins; Review; Sleep; Translational Research, Biomedical; Neurodevelopment; Brain; ASD; Fruit fly; ID; Drosophila
• ISSN: 1754-8403; 1754-8411; 1754-8411
• DOI: 10.1242/dmm.039180

Intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are frequently co-occurring neurodevelopmental disorders and affect 2-3% of the population. Rapid advances in exome and genome sequencing have increased the number of known implicated genes by threefold, to more than a thousand. The main challenges in the field are now to understand the various pathomechanisms associated with this bewildering number of genetic disorders, to identify new genes and to establish causality of variants in still-undiagnosed cases, and to work towards causal treatment options that so far are available only for a few metabolic conditions. To meet these challenges, the research community needs highly efficient model systems. With an increasing number of relevant assays and rapidly developing novel methodologies, the fruit fly
is ideally positioned to change gear in ID and ASD research. The aim of this Review is to summarize some of the exciting work that already has drawn attention to
as a model for these disorders. We highlight well-established ID- and ASD-relevant fly phenotypes at the (sub)cellular, brain and behavioral levels, and discuss strategies of how this extraordinarily efficient and versatile model can contribute to 'next generation' medical genomics and to a better understanding of these disorders.