title: Intestinal stem cell, muscular niche and Wingless signaling.
abstract: Stem cells are typically supported by the local tissue microenvironment named niche. Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) in the Drosophila midgut do not seem to be typical: they are scattered along the basement membrane composed of extracellular matrix, and are not associated with any obvious cellular niches. In addition, regulatory mechanisms controlling ISC self-renewal remain unknown. Recently, we have obtained evidence to show that Wingless signaling is critical for ISC self-renewal. Wingless is specifically produced from the underlying circular muscles and is able to traverse through the basement membrane and reach ISCs, where it activates a canonical Wnt signaling pathway to promote ISC self-renewal. Our study reveals a muscular niche for ISCs and Wnt signaling as a conserved mechanism regulating ISC self-renewal from Drosophila to mammals. Here we provide a brief overview of our findings, and discuss future perspectives on the regulatory mechanisms underlying ISC self-renewal and differentiation.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guonan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Rongwen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D007422:Intestines / Q000166:cytology; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D051155:Wnt1 Protein / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051155:Wnt1 Protein; C074622:wg protein, Drosophila