(682f) Bioinformatic Analysis of Polyamine Pathway Gene Expression Reveals Roles in Morphogenesis during Drosophila Development

Polyamines are organic molecules that play important roles in cellular processes such as gene regulation, signal transduction, cell growth, and cell proliferation. There is also evidence for polyamines having roles downstream of certain oncogenes as well as tumors exhibiting increased polyamine biosynthesis levels. Therefore, these molecules have been intensely studied as potential targets for cancer therapies. Unfortunately, therapies targeting polyamine metabolism have had limited efficacy against cancer due compensatory mechanisms. Here we perform bioinformatics analysis on previously published gene expression data for Drosophila melanogaster in order to glean insights into novel genes of involvement in polyamine regulation and novel roles for polyamines in vivo. Previously published whole genome expression data from 25 Drosophila cell lines, as well as across 6 stages of larval development and 12 stages of embryonic development served as a rich data source for the analysis. Using techniques such as template matching and clustering analysis with known polyamine metabolism genes, lists of candidate polyamine modulating genes were generated. The sophisticated genetic tools of Drosophila enable us to specifically probe these candidates for effects on polyamines in future studies.  We also analyzed candidate gene lists for enriched gene ontology annotations in order to glean insights into processes in which polyamines might play important roles. Among these enriched ontologies were indications of polyamine regulation during distinct phases of morphogenesis. These findings have been validated by experiments that identified novel spatial-temporal patterns implicating polyamines in previously unstudied roles during Drosophila development.