Membrane Attack Complex / Perforin-like proteins in Developmental and Neurobiology

Membrane attack complex / perforin-like (MACPF) proteins commonly play key roles in vertebrate immunity.
However, a number of MACPF proteins play crucial, but poorly characterised, roles in embryonic patterning
and neural development. The goal of this proposal is to understand the role of one such molecule, Torsolike,
an essential developmental protein and the only known member of the MACPF family in Drosophila.
Torsolike is postulated to permit localised activation of a critical signalling protein, Trunk, which functions as
the ligand for the Torso Receptor Tyrosine Kinase. Here we aim to unravel the role of a MACPF protein in this
pathway, both in embryonic patterning and in development of the central nervous system.