ABOVE: When exposed to oxidative stress, Drosophila brain cells (glia shown above) can develop more than two sets of chromosomes—a state that may protect the brain from damage.
NANDAKUMAR ET AL., 2020
The paper
S. Nandakumar et al., “Polyploidy in the adult Drosophila brain,” eLife, 9:e54385, 2020.
Over a lifetime, mature brain cells face a gauntlet of oxidative stress, DNA damage, and other dangers that can lead to neurodegeneration. In response, Drosophila’s brain cells acquire additional sets of chromosomes beyond the normal two. These chromosome-packed cells appear to be more resistant to cell death, suggesting polyploidy plays a protective role in the fly brain, University of Michigan molecular cell biologist Shyama Nandakumar and colleagues found.
Although the researchers knew that cell damage can lead to the accumulation of additional sets of chromosomes in some cases, such as in the human liver and in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, not much ...
