Poly(A) tail length regulation plays a major role in the OPMD Drosophila model.

A) Genetic rescue of wing position phenotypes with genes involved in poly(A) tail regulation. Percentage of wing posture defects in the presence or absence of heterozygous mutants, scored at day 6. OPMD flies were w¹¹¹⁸; Act88F-PABPN1-17ala/+ raised at 25°C. Note that OPMD phenotypes (affected wing posture) are not visible at day 2 with this transgene. **** p-value <0.0001, using the χ² test. B) Genetic screen with heterozygous mutants. Wing posture defects were scored at day 6. OPMD flies were w¹¹¹⁸; Act88F-PABPN1-17ala/+ raised at 25°C. wispy encodes a cytoplasmic poly(A) polymerase expressed in the female germline [42]. **** p-value <0.0001, *** p-value <0.001, ** p-value <0.01, ns: not significant, using the χ² test. C-D) PAT assays in control (w¹¹¹⁸; Mhc-Gal4/+) and OPMD (w¹¹¹⁸; UAS-PABPN1-17ala/+; Mhc-Gal4/+) adult thoraxes from flies raised at 18°C, at days 2 and 6. C) mRNAs encoding subunits of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes. D) mRNAs encoding muscle sarcomeric proteins. Arrows indicate poly(A) tails of 12A. Profiles of PAT assays using the ImageJ software are shown.