Figure 3.

Loss of Intracellular Negative Regulators of NF-κB/Relish Triggers Early Onset of Neurodegeneration

5- and 30-day-old mutants for intracellular negative regulators of the IMD pathway, aged at 25°C, were examined for age-dependent neurodegeneration by histology and then quantified.

(A) Midbrain sections of caspar mutant flies did not show any differences compared with their genetic background (age-matched w¹¹¹⁸ controls). However, some sections showed an increase in cyld and posh mutants (data not shown).

(B) Mutants for the intracellular negative regulators pirk, trbd, and tg, but not rybp, showed increased age-dependent neurodegeneration in midbrain sections.

(C) When quantified, caspar mutant flies had a neurodegeneration index indistinguishable to w¹¹¹⁸ controls, whereas posh and cyld had a significant increase in neurodegeneration.

(D) Quantification of pirk, trbd, and tg, but not rybp, revealed a neurodegeneration index that was significantly different from yw controls.

(E) Neurodegeneration index in correlation with Imd pathway output (as measured by dipt gene expression). The increase in neurodegeneration correlated with an increase in mRNA levels of dipt.

Values shown are mean ± SEM. Asterisks denote statistically significant differences (^∗p ≤ 0.05, ^∗∗p ≤ 0.01, ^∗∗∗p ≤ 0.001).