Project description:Regeneration of fragmented Drosophila imaginal discs occurs in an epimorphic manner, involving local cell proliferation at the wound site. Following disc fragmentation, cells at the wound site activate a restoration program through wound healing, regenerative cell proliferation and repatterning of the tissue. However, the interplay of signaling cascades, driving these early reprogramming steps, is not well understood. Here we profiled the transcriptome of regenerating cells in the early phase within twenty-four hours after wounding. We found that JAK/STAT signaling becomes activated at the wound site and promotes regenerative cell proliferation in cooperation with Wingless (Wg) signaling. In addition, we demonstrated that the expression of Drosophila insulin-like peptide 8 (dilp8), which encodes a paracrine peptide to delay the onset of pupariation, is controlled by JAK/STAT signaling in early regenerating discs. Our findings suggest that JAK/STAT signaling plays a pivotal role in coordinating regenerative disc growth with organismal developmental timing. In order to analyze transcriptome change in early regenerating imaginal disc, Drosophila prothorasic leg discs were fragmented (to anterior one-quarter or posterior three-quarters) and cultured ex vivo in adult fly abdomen. Regenerating cells in early regeneration phase (at 12 or 24 hours after wounding) were subjected to transcriptome profiling with Affymetrix microarrays. For control samples, the corresponding regions of uncut-cultured discs and uncut-uncultured discs were used.
Project description:Regeneration of fragmented Drosophila imaginal discs occurs in an epimorphic manner, involving local cell proliferation at the wound site. Following disc fragmentation, cells at the wound site activate a restoration program through wound healing, regenerative cell proliferation and repatterning of the tissue. However, the interplay of signaling cascades, driving these early reprogramming steps, is not well understood. Here we profiled the transcriptome of regenerating cells in the early phase within twenty-four hours after wounding. We found that JAK/STAT signaling becomes activated at the wound site and promotes regenerative cell proliferation in cooperation with Wingless (Wg) signaling. In addition, we demonstrated that the expression of Drosophila insulin-like peptide 8 (dilp8), which encodes a paracrine peptide to delay the onset of pupariation, is controlled by JAK/STAT signaling in early regenerating discs. Our findings suggest that JAK/STAT signaling plays a pivotal role in coordinating regenerative disc growth with organismal developmental timing.
Project description:The JAK/STAT pathway is an essential signalling cascade required for multiple processes during both development and for adult homeostasis. A key question in understanding this pathway is how it is regulated in different cell contexts. Here we have examined how endocytic processing contributes to signalling by the single cytokine receptor, Domeless, in Drosophila melanogaster cells. We identify an evolutionarily conserved di-Leu motif that is required for Domeless internalisation and show that endocytosis is required for activation of a subset of Domeless targets. Our data indicate that endocytosis both qualitatively and quantitatively regulates Domeless signalling. STAT92E, the single STAT transcription factor in Drosophila, appears to be the target of endocytic regulation and our studies show that phosphorylation of STAT92E on Tyr704, while necessary, is not always sufficient for target transcription. Finally, we identify a conserved residue, Thr702, which is essential for Tyr704 phosphorylation. Taken together, our findings identify previously unknown aspects of JAK/STAT pathway regulation likely to play key roles in the spatial and temporal regulation of signalling in vivo.
Project description:The systemic response to injury in Drosophila melanogaster is characterized by the activation of specific signaling pathways that facilitate the regeneration of wounded tissue and help coordinate wound healing with organism growth. The mechanisms by which damaged tissues influence the development and function of peripheral non-injured tissues is not fully understood. Injury was induced in early third instar larvae via temperature-dependent cell death in wing imaginal discs. Microarray analysis using RNA isolated from injured and control was used to identify genes underlying the systemic injury response. We identified 150 genes which were differentially expressed in response to localized cell death in wing imaginal discs. Upregulated genes were associated biological processes including carnitine biosynthesis, signal transduction and regulation of oxidoreductase activity while terms associated with downregulated genes included wound healing, imaginal disc-derived wing hair outgrowth, and regulation of glutamatergic synaptic transmission. Pathway analysis revealed that wing disc damage led to changes in fatty acid, cysteine, and carnitine metabolism. One gene, 14-3-3ζ, which encodes a known regulator of Ras/MAPK signaling was identified as a potential regulator of transdetermination during tissue regeneration. Our results raise the possibility that immune function and cell proliferation during wing disc repair and regeneration in Drosophila may require the sulfur amino acid cysteine and its’ metabolites, taurine and glutathione, similar to what has been reported during tissue repair in mammals. Further, it seems likely that imaginal disc damage stimulates the mobilization of fatty acids to support the energetically demanding process of tissue regeneration. The roles of additional genes that are differentially regulated following imaginal disc injury remain to be elucidated.
Project description:Long-term consumption of fatty foods is associated with obesity, macrophage activation and inflammation, metabolic imbalance, and a reduced lifespan. We took advantage of Drosophila genetics to investigate the role of macrophages and the pathway(s) that govern their response to dietary stress. Flies fed a lipid-rich diet presented with increased fat storage, systemic JAK-STAT activation, reduced insulin sensitivity and hyperglycaemia, and a shorter lifespan. Drosophila macrophages scavenged lipids and produced the type 1 cytokine upd3, in a scavenger-receptor (croquemort) and JNK-dependent manner. Genetic depletion of macrophages, or macrophage-specific silencing of upd3 decreased JAK-STAT activation and rescued insulin sensitivity and the lifespan of Drosophila, but did not decrease fat storage. NF-M-NM-:B signalling made no contribution to the phenotype observed. These results identify an evolutionarily conserved M-bM-^@M-^Xscavenger receptor-JNK-Type 1 cytokineM-bM-^@M-^Y cassette in macrophages, which controls glucose metabolism and reduces lifespan in Drosophila maintained on a lipid-rich diet via activation of the JAK-STAT pathway Long-term consumption of fatty foods is associated with obesity, macrophage activation and inflammation, metabolic imbalance, and a reduced lifespan. We took advantage of Drosophila genetics to investigate the role of macrophages and the pathway(s) that govern their response to dietary stress. Flies fed a lipid-rich diet presented with increased fat storage, systemic JAK-STAT activation, reduced insulin sensitivity and hyperglycaemia, and a shorter lifespan. Drosophila macrophages scavenged lipids and produced the type 1 cytokine upd3, in a scavenger-receptor (croquemort) and JNK-dependent manner. Genetic depletion of macrophages, or macrophage-specific silencing of upd3 decreased JAK-STAT activation and rescued insulin sensitivity and the lifespan of Drosophila, but did not decrease fat storage. NF-M-NM-:B signalling made no contribution to the phenotype observed. These results identify an evolutionarily conserved M-bM-^@M-^Xscavenger receptor-JNK-Type 1 cytokineM-bM-^@M-^Y cassette in macrophages, which controls glucose metabolism and reduces lifespan in Drosophila maintained on a lipid-rich diet via activation of the JAK-STAT pathway 5 biological samples were FACS-sorted from different batches of Drosophila melanogaster males after 30 days on 15% lipid enriched diet (n=5) and control diet (n=5)
Project description:JAK/STAT pathway plays important roles in controlling Drosophila intestinal homeostasis and regulating the ISC proliferation and differentiation. However,the downstream targets of its transcription factor-STAT92E remain largely unknown.To further identify the regualtory mechanisms of the JAK/STAT pathway in controlling intestinal homeostasis,we performed the ChIP-Seq assay with mouse raised STAT92E antibody using JAK/STAT signaling highly activated adult intestines.Through the ChIP assay, we have identified over 1000 significant peaks (p<0.01) around the putative targets.The well-characterized JAK/STAT downstream targets including Domeless,Socs36E,STAT92E and chinmo were identified in our ChIP assay,indicating that our experiment is workable to identify novel JAK/STAT downstream targets in adult intestines.This work will provide insights into our understanding of regulatory mechanisms of JAK/STAT signaling during Drosophila intestinal development. Identify the ChIP peaks of STAT92E antibody using JAK/STAT signaling highly actived Drosophila adult intestines, compared with input libaray as the control
Project description:Chronically activated JAK/STAT signaling leads to several lung diseases, including lung cancer, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to elucidate the molecular processes which transform elevated JAK/STAT signaling in airway epithelial cells into pathology.
Project description:Although the JAK/STAT pathway regulates numerous processes in vertebrates and invertebrates through modulating transcription, its functionally-relevant transcriptional targets remain largely unknown. With one jak and one stat (stat92E), Drosophila provides a powerful system for finding new JAK/STAT target genes. Genome-wide expression profiling on eye discs in which Stat92E is hyperactivated, revealed 584 differentially-regulated genes, including known targets domeless, socs36E and wingless. Other differentially-regulated genes (chinmo, lama, Mo25, Imp-L2, Serrate, Delta) were validated and may represent new Stat92E targets. Genetic experiments revealed that Stat92E cell-autonomously represses Serrate, which encodes a Notch ligand. Loss of Stat92E led to de-repression of Serrate in the dorsal eye, resulting in ectopic Notch signaling and aberrant eye growth there. Thus, our micro-array documents a new Stat92E target gene and a previously-unidentified inhibitory action of Stat92E on Notch signaling. These data suggest that this study will be a useful resource for the identification of additional Stat92E targets. Identification of the JAK/STAT pathway target genes in the Drosophila eye disc Keywords: Genotype comparison Gene expression profiles from five biological replicates of eye discs with yw (control) and GMR-upd (overexpressing JAK/STAT ligand unpaired) were compared using genome wide mRNA expression profiling by Affymetrix genechip arrays (Drosophila 2.0) and key targets were validated by clonal analysis, in situ hybridization, immunohistochemical staining and quantitative real-time PCR.
Project description:Classical regeneration experiments in insects have demonstrated an important role for imaginal tissues (also called discs, the larval tissues that give rise to the adult appendages) in coupling tissue growth, maturation and patterning during development We used the rotund-Gal4 driver (Rn>) for disc-targeted silencing of the avalanche gene (avl; Rn>avl-RNAi), encoding a syntaxin that functions in the early endocytic machinery (H. Lu, D. Bilder, Nat Cell Biol 7, 1232; Dec, 2005). Rn>avl-RNAi discs reach near to normal size after 5 days of development, and then undergo unrestricted neoplastic growth. We were interested in identifying genes showing differential expression profiles in control and in neoplastic growth. We identified dilp8 as one of the most differentially expressed gene in control and Rn>avl-RNAi discs. Abstract from the associated publication: Little is known about how organ growth is monitored and coordinated with the developmental timing in complex organisms. In insects, impairment of larval tissue growth delays growth and morphogenesis, revealing a coupling mechanism. We carried out a genetic screen in Drosophila to identify molecules expressed by growing tissues participating in this coupling and identified dilp8 as a gene whose silencing rescues the developmental delay induced by abnormally growing tissues. dilp8 is highly induced in conditions where growth impairment produces a developmental delay. dilp8 encodes a peptide whose expression and secretion is sufficient to delay metamorphosis without affecting tissue integrity. We propose that dilp8 is a secreted signal that coordinates the growth status of tissues with developmental timing. RNA were extracted from wing discs of either Rn>+ or Rn>Avl RNAi staged third larval instar at 92, 116 or 168 hours AED (After Egg Deposition) using Qiagen RNeasy lipid tissue microkit according to the manufacturer protocol. Three separate samples were collected for each time point.