title: The growth regulators warts/lats and melted interact in a bistable loop to specify opposite fates in Drosophila R8 photoreceptors.
abstract: Color vision in Drosophila relies on the comparison between two color-sensitive photoreceptors, R7 and R8. Two types of ommatidia in which R7 and R8 contain different rhodopsins are distributed stochastically in the retina and appear to discriminate short (p-subset) or long wavelengths (y-subset). The choice between p and y fates is made in R7, which then instructs R8 to follow the corresponding fate, thus leading to a tight coupling between rhodopsins expressed in R7 and R8. Here, we show that warts, encoding large tumor suppressor (Lats) and melted encoding a PH-domain protein, play opposite roles in defining the yR 8 or pR8 fates. By interacting antagonistically at the transcriptional level, they form a bistable loop that insures a robust commitment of R8 to a single fate, without allowing ambiguity. This represents an unexpected postmitotic role for genes controlling cell proliferation (warts and its partner hippo and salvador) and cell growth (melted).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Center for Developmental Genetics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mikeladze-Dvali
authors.forename: Mathias F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Wernet
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pistillo
authors.forename: Esteban O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Mazzoni
authors.forename: Aurelio A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Teleman
authors.forename: Ya-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Desplan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D004330:Drosophila / Q000378:metabolism*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D010641:Phenotype; D010786:Photoreceptor Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D012243:Rhodopsin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; C505057:melt protein, Drosophila; D012243:Rhodopsin; D011494:Protein Kinases; C093503:wts protein, Drosophila