Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by genetic or environmental factors. Among several animal models, the Drosophila melanogaster is one of the valuable models widely used in studying genes and proteins implicated in PD. UCH-L1 (Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1) which is involved in formation of Lewy bodies, shows loss of function mutations in PD causing degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in mice. Here, we summarize the results from studying the UCH-L1 and its knockdown in Drosophila model of PD with respect to movement, degeneration of dopamine producing neurons, dopamine deficiency and age dependent dependency of progression of the disease. The knockdown of the UCH-L1 in Drosophila can be used in studying the epidemiology of the disease as well as in drug screening for finding therapeutic targets for PD.
