The insect nephrocyte and the mammalian glomerular podocyte are similar with regard to
filtration, but it remains unclear whether there is an organ or cell type in flies that reabsorbs
proteins. Here, we show that the Drosophila nephrocyte has molecular, structural, and
functional similarities to the renal proximal tubule cell. We screened for genes required for
nephrocyte function and identified two Drosophila genes encoding orthologs of mammalian
cubilin and amnionless (AMN), two major receptors for protein reabsorption in the proximal …