The human gene CORO7 was identified in genome-wide DNA methylation profiling experiments as a candidate gene involved in epigenetic changes related to obesity. The protein encoded by CORO7 functions in Golgi-to-endosome transport and is thought to play an essential role in maintenance of Golgi apparatus morphology. There is a single ortholog in Drosophila, pod1, for which RNAi-targeting constructs and alleles caused by insertional mutagenesis have been generated.
The human CORO7 gene has not been introduced into flies.
In both mice and flies, expression of CORO7/pod1 is widespread, with highest levels in the central nervous system. It is postulated that, in mammals, the gene plays role in regulation of central feeding circuits in the brain. Flies with reduced levels of pod1 in the nervous system, effected by UAS-RNAi using a pan-neuronal driver, exhibit modestly increased resistance to starvation. In assays of flies subjected to different diets, expression of pod1 increased in animals on a high-protein, high-sugar diet.
Other work in flies has implicated pod1 in neural functions such as axon guidance and post-synaptic glutamate receptor trafficking; the protein is observed to colocalize with actin filaments and cytoplasmic microtubules and at the axon growth cone. There is a single genetic interaction reported for Dmel\pod1; see the gene report for pod1.
[updated Feb. 2017 by FlyBase; FBrf0222196]
Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual's ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death. (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/obesity).
The development of obesity is recognized as having both genetic and environmental components (https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/203-obesity-genetic-or-environmental).
CORO7 is associated with body fat distribution in a GWAS study (see GWAS Catalog, below in 'External links').
Coronins, such as CORO7, constitute an evolutionarily conserved family of WD-repeat actin-binding proteins. [from Gene Cards, CORO7; 2017.02.17]
Unlike other coronin proteins, the protein encoded by CORO7 is not an actin-binding protein; it functions as an F-actin regulator directing anterograde Golgi-to-endosome transport and is thought to play an essential role in maintenance of Golgi apparatus morphology. [from NCBI Gene, CORO7; 2017.02.17]
One to one (1 human to 1 Drosophila).
Moderate-scoring ortholog of human CORO7 (1 Drosophila to 1 human); Dmel\pod1 shares 30% identity and 45% similarity with the human gene.
In humans, there is also a fusion (read-through) gene annotated: CORO7-PAM16 (HGNC:44424).
