Niche signaling promotes stem cell survival in the Drosophila testis via the JAK-STAT target DIAP1.

ABSTRACT: Tissue-specific stem cells are thought to resist environmental insults better than their differentiating progeny, but this resistance varies from one tissue to another, and the underlying mechanisms are not well-understood. Here, we use the Drosophila testis as a model system to study the regulation of cell death within an intact niche. This niche contains sperm-producing germline stem cells (GSCs) and accompanying somatic cyst stem cells (or CySCs). Although many signals are known to promote stem cell self-renewal in this tissue, including the highly conserved JAK-STAT pathway, the response of these stem cells to potential death-inducing signals, and factors promoting stem cell survival, have not been characterized. Here we find that both GSCs and CySCs resist cell death better than their

SUBMITTER: Hasan S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4469572 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature