Project description:Mammalian inner ear and fish lateral line sensory hair cells depend on fluid motion to transduce environmental signals and elicit a response. In mammals, actively maintained ionic homeostasis of the cochlear and vestibular fluid (endolymph) is essential for hair cell function and numerous mammalian hearing and vestibular disorders arise from disrupted endolymph ion homeostasis. Lateral line hair cells, however, are openly exposed to the aqueous environment with fluctuating ionic composition. How sensory transduction in the lateral line is maintained during environmental changes of ionic composition is not fully understood. Using lineage labeling, in vivo time lapse imaging and scRNA-seq, we discovered highly motile skin-derived cells that invade mature mechanosensory organs of the zebrafish lateral line and differentiate into Neuromast-associated (Nm) ionocytes. Furthermore, the invasive behavior is adaptive as it is triggered by drastic fluctuations in environmental stimuli. Our findings challenge the notion of an entirely placodally-derived lateral line and identify Nm ionocytes as likely regulators of mechanosensory hair cell function possibly by modulating the ionic microenvironment. The discovery of lateral line ionocytes provides an experimentally accessible in vivo system to study cell invasion and migration, as well as the physiological adaptation of vertebrate organs to changing environmental conditions.
Project description:The mechanistic target of rapamycin mTORC1 is a key regulator of cell metabolism and autophagy. Despite widespread clinical use of mTOR inhibitors, the role of mTORC1 in renal tubular function and kidney homeostasis remains elusive. By utilizing constitutive and inducible deletion of conditional Raptor alleles in renal tubular epithelial cells, we discovered that mTORC1 deficiency caused a marked concentrating defect, loss of tubular cells and slowly progressive renal fibrosis. Transcriptional profiling revealed that mTORC1 maintains renal tubular homeostasis by controlling mitochondrial metabolism and biogenesis as well as transcellular transport processes involved in counter-current multiplication and urine concentration. Although mTORC2 partially compensated the loss of mTORC1, exposure to ischemia and reperfusion injury exaggerated the tubular damage in mTORC1-deficient mice, and caused pronounced apoptosis, diminished proliferation rates and delayed recovery. These findings identify mTORC1 as an essential regulator of tubular energy metabolism and as a crucial component of ischemic stress responses. Pharmacological inhibition of mTORC1 likely affects tubular homeostasis, and may be particularly deleterious if the kidney is exposed to acute injury. Furthermore, the combined inhibition of mTORC1 and mTORC2 may increase the susceptibility to renal damage. Raptor fl/fl*KspCre and Raptor fl/fl animals were sacrificed at P14 before the development of an overt functional phenotype. Kidneys were split in half and immediately snap frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Project description:During adult homeostasis and regeneration, the freshwater planarian must accomplish a constant balance between cell proliferation and cell death, while also maintaining proper tissue and organ size and patterning. Yet how these ordered processes are precisely modulated, remains relatively unknown. Here we show that planarians use the downstream effector of the Hippo signalling cascade, yorkie (yki; YAP in vertebrates) to control a diverse set of pleiotropic processes in organ homeostasis, stem cell regulation, regeneration, and axial patterning. We show that yki functions to maintain the homeostasis of the planarian excretory (protonephridial) system and to limit stem cell proliferation, while not affecting the differentiation process or cell death. Finally, we show that yki synergizes with WNT/β-catenin signalling to repress head determination by limiting the expression domains of posterior WNT genes and the WNT-inhibitor notum. Together, our data show that yki is a key factor in planarians that integrates stem cell proliferation control, organ homeostasis, and the spatial patterning of tissues.