Regulation of cellular plasticity in Drosophila imaginal disc cells by the Polycomb group, trithorax group and lama genes.
Drosophila imaginal disc cells can switch fates by transdetermining from one determined state to another. We analyzed the expression profiles of cells induced by ectopic Wingless expression to transdetermine from leg to wing by dissecting transdetermined cells and hybridizing probes generated by linear RNA amplification to DNA microarrays. Changes in expression levels implicated a number of genes: lamina ancestor, CG12534 (a gene orthologous to mouse augmenter of liver regeneration), Notch pathway members, and the Polycomb and trithorax groups of chromatin regulators. Functional tests revealed that transdetermination was significantly affected in mutants for lama and seven different PcG and trxG genes. These results validate our methods for expression profiling as a way to analyze developmental programs, and show that modifications to chromatin structure are key to changes in cell fate. Our findings are likely to be relevant to the mechanisms that lead to disease when homologs of Wingless are expressed at abnormal levels and to the manifestation of pluripotency of stem cells.
Klebes
Ansgar
A
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
Sustar
Anne
A
Kechris
Katherina
K
Li
Hao
H
Schubiger
Gerold
G
Kornberg
Thomas B
TB
D000818:Animals; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics; D004628:Embryonic Structures / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D009024:Morphogenesis; D005810:Multigene Family; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D063150:Polycomb Repressive Complex 1; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; C066770:Pc protein, Drosophila; D014157:Transcription Factors; C063460:Trl protein, Drosophila; C103922:lama protein, Drosophila; D063150:Polycomb Repressive Complex 1