: Unlike vertebrates, where the stored fatty acids are mobilized as free fatty acids, a great number of insects, mobilizes fatty acids as an-1, 2-diacylglycerol (DG). The mobilization of TG stores requires the action of a TG-lipase, whose activity is hormonally regulated. The substrate of the lipase (TG) is found in large intracellular lipid droplets, which are constituted by a core of TG surrounded by a complex surface layer of phospholipids and proteins. On the other hand, the TG-lipase localizes in the cytosol of lipolytically unstimulated fat body cells. Lipolysis involves the interaction of the lipase with the surface of the lipid droplet. It is known that activation of lipolysis promotes both an increase of intracellular calcium concentration and activation of amp-dependent protein kinase (A-kinase) but the basic mechanisms involved in how phosphorylation-dephosphorylation reactions modulate the rate of lipolysis is unknown. Moreover, little is known about the relevance and nature of the structural and compositional changes that affect the lipid droplet when lipolysis is hormonally activated. These changes must ultimately affect the interaction of the lipase with the lipid substrate and the concomitant activation of lipolysis. DG moves from the lipid droplet to the plasma membrane by an uncharacterized mechanism. It appears that after the conversion of TG into DG on the surface of the lipid droplets, DG would be transferred to a cytosolic carrier, which in turn would target the delivery of DG across the plasma membrane. The overall goals of this project are to establish the mechanisms regulating lipolysis by determining the factors that promotes the interaction between TG-lipase and its substrate, the lipid droplet and to define the mechanism of intracellular transport of DG. Clearly the elucidation of these mechanisms is of fundamental importance in insect biochemistry and physiology. These studies will provide comprehensive information on the lipolytic process in insects and this knowledge could also contribute to the broad field of lipid metabolism and transport in vertebrates.
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