B-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) with Serine and other Natural Amino Acids in Drosophila

Degenerative neuronal diseases (Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s Disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) affect activities associated with motion and cognition, such as balance, talking, and respiration. Many of these diseases are connected to genetic mutations, the environment, or age. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Parkinsonism-dementia complex (ALS/PDC) is a variant form of ALS.  β-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), a non-natural amino acid produced by many species of the abundant and ancient cyanobacteria have been associated with the cause of ALS/PDC. Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) are a convenient, inexpensive and well-defined animal model used to investigate many human-derived disease. Experiments were to design and implemented to test if in-vivo BMAA competes with serine, a structurally similar amino acid, along with other natural amino acids (e.g. methionine). BMAA and an equivalent concentration of either serine or methionine were fed to female age-matched Canton S fruit flies. Our method used three independent trials of ten Drosophila melanogaster per vial, per treatment. The control  group were fed with a special gel-pellet containing: 1. Regular fly food (control); 2.  BMAA alone (25 or 50 mM); 3. amino acid alone (25 or 50 mM); or (4) the combination of equimolar BMAA and the tested competing amino acid. The acute effects were measured over a 5-day period and included viability and locomotor ability. My results show serine and lysine rescue the acute loss of viability in BMAA alone. Sequential treatment and competition with each of the twenty natural amino acids will give further insight into the structure-function relationship between BMAA and role in neuronal dysfunction.