RNA expression in fly thoraxes of 4 WT, 4 dCanA1 and 4 dCanA-14F calcineurin mutant fly lines

Canonical protein phosphatase 3 (Ppp3) / calcineurin signaling is central to numerous physiological processes. Here we provide evidence that calcineurin plays a pivotal role in controlling systemic energy and body weight homeostasis. Knockdown of calcineurin in Drosophila melanogaster led to a decrease in body weight, and energy stores, and increased energy expenditure. D. melanogaster piggyBac transposon insertion mutants (Thibault et al., 2004) (PBac{WH}CanA1[f01787] (Calcineurin A1) and PBac{WH}CanA-14F[f02374] (CanA at 14-F)) and the isogenic wildtype w1118 strain (BL-6326) were ordered from Exelixis Drosophila Stock Collection at Harvard Medical School. RNA was isolated from the thorax of 50 flies per sample. Whole genome tiling gene arrays were utilized to reveal distinctly deregulated gene patterns that appeared in both mutants (n=4, respectively) as compared to the WT controls (n=4).