Report A Novel Drosophila Model of Nerve Injury Reveals an Essential Role of Nmnat in Maintaining Axonal Integrity

Howard Hughes Medical InstituteUniversity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USASummaryAxons damaged by acute injury, toxic insults, or duringneurodegenerative diseases undergo Wallerian or Waller-ian-like degeneration, which is an active and orderly cellularprocess, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly under-stood [1–3]. Drosophila has been proven to be a successfulsystem for modeling human neurodegenerative diseases[4, 5]. In this study, we established a novel in vivo model ofaxon injury using the adult fly wing. The wing nerve high-lightedbyfluorescentproteinmarkerscanbedirectlyvisual-ized in living animals and be precisely severed by a simplewingcut,makingithighlysuitableforlarge-scalescreening.Using this model, we confirmed an axonal protective func-tion of Wld