Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed January 25, 2014).

Front cover ; Title page ; Imprint ; Zusammenfassung deutsch ; Abstract ; List of abbreviations ; Table of Contents ; Aim of this work ; 1 Introduction ; 1.1 A brief intorduction to the immune system of insects ; 1.2 The Drosophila immune system ; 1.2.1 Signaling pathways that regulate immune gene expression ; 1.2.2 Drosophilahematopoiesis ; 1.2.3 Phagocytosis of apoptotic cells and pathogen ; 1.2.4 Opsonosation -- the putative role of TEPs ; 1.2.5 Encapsulation ; 1.2.6 Clotting/coagulation ; 1.2.7 The prophenoloxidase activating system (PAS) ; 1.3 Autoimmune mutants in Drosophila.

1.4 The danger model to explain immune activation 1.4.1 The hydrophobicity model ; 1.5 The concepts of cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting ; 1.6 Drosophila melanogaster as a cancer model ; 1.7 Oncogenes and tumor suppressors ; 1.7.1 Tumor suppressors of the apicobasal polarity module ; 1.7.2 The Hippo tumor suppressor pathway ; 1.8 Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ; 1.8.1 TNF signaling and mammalian cancer ; 1.9 Breakdown of extracellular matrix is required for tumor invasiveness ; 1.10 Apoptosis ; 1.11 Advantages of Drosophila melan ogaster as a model system.

1.12 Outline of this project 2 Materials ; 2.1 Reagents ; 2.2 Buffers and solutions ; 2.3 Fly strains ; 2.4 Concumables ; 2.5 Tools and devices ; 2.6 Software ; 3 Methods ; 3.1 Insect culture ; 3.1.1 Drosophila melanogaster culture ; 3.1.2 Galleria mellonella culture ; 3.1.3 Rearing pf Pararge aegeria ; 3.1.4 Rearing of Anopheles gambiae ; 3.2 Fly Handling ; 3.3 Handling of larvae ; 3.4 Dissection of larval tissue ; 3.5 Dissection of wings ; 3.6 Hanging drop method ; 3.7 Clot preparations ; 3.8 PPO Activation in hemolymph ; 3.8.1 Dot blotting.

3.9 Injection of peptidoglycan (PGN) into larve 3.10 Live imaging og GFP expressing larvae ; 3.11 Immunocytochemistry and histochemistry ; 3.11.1 Detection of hemocytes and MMP1 on larval tissue ; 3.11.2 Detection of hemocyte classes in bleeds ; 3.12 Detection of mecrotic or late-apoptic cell death in salivary glands ; 3.13 Detection of apoptosis in salivary glands ; 3.14 Image analysis based quantification ; 3.14.1 Determination of salivary gland size ; 3.14.2 Quantification of hemcyte adherance on salivary glands ; 3.15 Statistical analysis ; 3.16 Ectopic induction of apoptosis and imaging.

3.17 Induction of aberant self with the GAL4 system 3.18 RNA interference (RNAi) as a tool to study gene function ; 3.19 Generating fly strains ; 3.20 Fly stocks generated for this work ; 3.21 Fly stocks generated that will be used to address additional questions ; 4 Results ; 4.1 The activation of PPO in Dipterans and Lepidopterans: Microbial elicitors versus danger signals ; 4.1.1 Melanization patterns in the clot of Dipteran and Lepidopterans: Microbial elicitors versus danger signals.

Open Access EbpS