Report of a "true ortholog" in flies of the human Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease-related gene GDAP1

López Del Amo V, Seco-Cervera M, García-Giménez JL, Whitworth AJ, Pallardó FV, Galindo MI. Mitochondrial defects and neuromuscular degeneration caused by altered expression of Drosophila Gdap1: implications for the Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy. Hum Mol Genet. 2015 Jan 1;24(1):21-36. PMID: 25122658.

From the abstract: "One of the genes involved in Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, an inherited peripheral neuropathy, is GDAP1. In this work, we show that there is a true ortholog of this gene in Drosophila, which we have named Gdap1. By up- and down-regulation of Gdap1 in a tissue-specific manner, we show that altering its levels of expression produces changes in mitochondrial size, morphology and distribution, and neuronal and muscular degeneration. ... Our results contribute to a better understanding of the role of mitochondria in CMT disease and pave the way to generate clinically relevant disease models to study the relationship between mitochondrial dynamics and peripheral neurodegeneration."