title: Drosophila Rabex-5 restricts Notch activity in hematopoietic cells and maintains hematopoietic homeostasis.
abstract: Hematopoietic homeostasis requires the maintenance of a reservoir of undifferentiated blood cell progenitors and the ability to replace or expand differentiated blood cell lineages when necessary. Multiple signaling pathways function in these processes, but how their spatiotemporal control is established and their activity is coordinated in the context of the entire hematopoietic network are still poorly understood. We report here that loss of the gene Rabex-5 in Drosophila causes several hematopoietic abnormalities, including blood cell (hemocyte) overproliferation, increased size of the hematopoietic organ (the lymph gland), lamellocyte differentiation and melanotic mass formation. Hemocyte-specific Rabex-5 knockdown was sufficient to increase hemocyte populations, increase lymph gland size and induce melanotic masses. Rabex-5 negatively regulates Ras, and we show that Ras activity is responsible for specific Rabex-5 hematopoietic phenotypes. Surprisingly, Ras-independent Notch protein accumulation and transcriptional activity in the lymph gland underlie multiple distinct hematopoietic phenotypes of Rabex-5 loss. Thus, Rabex-5 plays an important role in Drosophila hematopoiesis and might serve as an axis coordinating Ras and Notch signaling in the lymph gland.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncological Sciences, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA.
authors.forename: Theresa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Reimels
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncological Sciences, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA cathie.pfleger@mssm.edu.
authors.forename: Cathie M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Pfleger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D006410:Hematopoiesis / Q000502:physiology*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051880:Receptors, Notch / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C497759:N protein, Drosophila; D051880:Receptors, Notch; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases; C553811:Rabex-5 protein, Drosophila
keywords: Crystal cell; Drosophila hematopoiesis; Hemocyte; Lamellocyte; Leukemia; Lymph gland; Melanotic mass; Notch; RabGEF1; Rabex-5; Ras