Dual role of wingless signaling in stem-like hematopoietic precursor maintenance in Drosophila.
In Drosophila, blood development occurs in a specialized larval hematopoietic organ, the lymph gland (LG), within which stem-like hemocyte precursors or prohemocytes differentiate to multiple blood cell types. Here we show that components of the Wingless (Wg) signaling pathway are expressed in prohemocytes. Loss- and gain-of-function analysis indicates that canonical Wg signaling is required for maintenance of prohemocytes and negatively regulates their differentiation. Wg signals locally in a short-range fashion within different compartments of the LG. In addition, Wg signaling positively regulates the proliferation and maintenance of cells that function as a hematopoietic niche in Drosophila, the posterior signaling center (PSC), and in the proliferation of crystal cells. Our studies reveal a conserved function of Wg signaling in the maintenance of stem-like blood progenitors and reveal an involvement of this pathway in the regulation of hemocyte differentiation through its action in the hematopoietic niche.
Sinenko
Sergey A
SA
Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Mandal
Lolitika
L
Martinez-Agosto
Julian A
JA
Banerjee
Utpal
U
D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D051157:Frizzled Receptors / Q000378:metabolism; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051155:Wnt1 Protein / Q000378:metabolism*
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051157:Frizzled Receptors; D051155:Wnt1 Protein; C074622:wg protein, Drosophila