title: Dcr-1 maintains Drosophila ovarian stem cells.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by controlling the turnover, translation, or both of specific mRNAs. In Drosophila, Dicer-1 (Dcr-1) is essential for generating mature miRNAs from their corresponding precursors. Because miRNAs are known to modulate developmental events, such as cell fate determination and maintenance in many species, we investigated whether a lack of Dcr-1 would affect the maintenance of stem cells (germline stem cells, GSCs; somatic stem cells, SSCs) in the Drosophila ovary by specifically removing its function from the stem cells. Our results show that dcr-1 mutant GSCs cannot be maintained and are lost rapidly from the niche without discernable features of cell death, indicating that Dcr-1 controls GSC self-renewal but not survival. bag of marbles (bam), the gene that encodes an important differentiating factor in the Drosophila germline, however, is not upregulated in dcr-1 mutant GSCs, and its removal does not slow down dcr-1 mutant GSC loss, suggesting that Dcr-1 controls GSC self-renewal by repressing a Bam-independent differentiation pathway. Furthermore, Dcr-1 is also essential for the maintenance of SSCs in the Drosophila ovary. Our data suggest that miRNAs produced by Dcr-1 are required for maintaining two types of stem cells in the Drosophila ovary.
authors.affiliation: Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, USA.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004330:Drosophila / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D004722:Endoribonucleases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism; D010053:Ovary / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology*; D020365:RNA Helicases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D043244:Ribonuclease III; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D035683:MicroRNAs; C091674:bam protein, Drosophila; C515033:Dcr-1 protein, Drosophila; D004722:Endoribonucleases; D043244:Ribonuclease III; D020365:RNA Helicases