title: Dual role of wingless signaling in stem-like hematopoietic precursor maintenance in Drosophila.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Sergey A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sinenko
authors.forename: Lolitika
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.forename: Julian A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Martinez-Agosto
authors.forename: Utpal
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Banerjee
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051157:Frizzled Receptors; D051155:Wnt1 Protein; C074622:wg protein, Drosophila