Alyssa Johnson

Area of Interest

My lab is exploring links between the genetic and molecular causes of age-related degenerative diseases, such as ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. A common hallmark of almost all degenerative diseases is the progressive accumulation of protein aggregates. Autophagy-lysosome mediated degradation is the major pathway that clears aggregates from the cytoplasm and autophagy defects are associated with many degenerative diseases. Using CRISPR gene editing techniques, we are introducing disease-causing mutations into the endogenous fruit fly genome and using a combination of genetic, biochemical and microscopy methods to study how the autophagy-lysosome pathway is affected in various cell types (e.g. neurons, glia and muscles) and how these molecular defects drive progressive degenerative phenotypes in the whole organism. 

Selected Publications

Complete list of publications

• Mercola BM, Villalobos TV, Wood JE, Basu A, and Johnson AE. 2025. Increased expression of the small lysosomal gene SVIP in the Drosophila gut suppresses pathophysiological features associated with a high-fat diet. Biology Open 14, bio061601. doi:10.1242/bio.061601.
• Gill JP, DeLeo KR, Bohnert KA, and Johnson AE. 2024. Human SVIP is sufficient to stimulate tubular lysosomes and extend healthspan in well-fed Caenorhabditis elegans. microPublication Biology. DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001379.
• Ricaurte-Perez C, Gill JP, Wall PK, Dubuisson O, DeLeo KR, Bohnert KA, and Johnson AE. 2024. DAF-16/FOXO and HLH-30/TFEB comprise a cooperative regulatory axis controlling tubular lysosome induction in C. elegans. (in revision, Nature Communications).
  • Research Square [preprint]: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4049366/v1
• Villalobos TV#, Ghosh B#, DeLeo KR#, Alam S#, Ricaurte-Perez C, Wang A, Mercola BM, Butsch TJ, Ramos CD, Das S, Eymard ED, Bohnert KA* and Johnson AE*. 2023. Tubular lysosome induction couples animal starvation to healthy aging. Nature Aging  3: 1091–1106.  #equal contributions, *corresponding authors
  • Link to "News and Views" perspective article: Lysosomal alteration links food limitation to longevity
• Pandey P, Wall PK, Lopez SR, Dubuisson OS, Zunica ERM, Dantas WS, Kirwan JP, Axelrod CL, and Johnson AE. A familial natural short sleep mutation promotes healthy aging and extends lifespan in Drosophila. BioRxiv [preprint]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.25.538137 
• Ramos CD, Bohnert KA* and Johnson AE*. 2022. Reproductive tradeoffs govern sexually dimorphic tubular lysosome induction in Caenorhabditis elegans. J Exp Biol 225 (12): jeb244282.  *corresponding authors
  • Selected as an "inside JEB" featured article: Knight K. 2022. Different tubular lysosome strategies of male and hermaphrodite C. elegans. J Exp Biol 225 (12): jeb244612.
• Bohnert KA* and Johnson AE*. 2022. Branching Off: New Insight Into Lysosomes as Tubular Organelles. Front Cell Dev Biol (review) 10:863922. *corresponding authors.
• Wall JM#, Basu A#, Zunica ERM, Dubuisson OS, Pergola K, Broussard JP, Kirwan JP, Axelrod CL and Johnson AE. 2021. CRISPR/Cas9-engineered Drosophila knock-in models to study VCP diseases. Disease Models and Mechanisms 14 (7): dmm048603. #equal contributions
• Johnson AE, Orr BO, Fetter RD, Moughamian AJ, Primeaux LA, Geier EG, Yokoyama JS, Miller BL & Davis GW. 2021. SVIP is a molecular determinant of lysosomal dynamic stability, neurodegeneration and lifespan. Nature Communications 12, 513.