title: The role of variant histone H2AV inDrosophila melanogasterlarval hematopoiesis.
abstract: Replication-independent histone variants can replace the canonical replication-dependent histones. Vertebrates have multiple H2A variant histones, including H2AZ and H2AX that are present in most eukaryotes. H2AZ regulates transcriptional activation as well as the maintenance of gene silencing, while H2AX is important in DNA damage repair. The fruit flyDrosophila melanogasterhas only one histone H2A variant (H2AV), which is a chimera of H2AZ and H2AX. In this study we found that lack of H2AV led to the formation of black melanotic masses inDrosophilathird instar larvae. The formation of these masses was found in conjunction with a loss of the majority of the primary lymph gland lobes. Interestingly, the cells of the posterior signaling center were preserved in these mutants. Reduction of H2AV levels by RNAi knockdown caused a milder phenotype that preserved the lymph gland structure but that included precocious differentiation of the prohemocytes located within the medullary zone and the secondary lobes of the lymph gland. Mutant rescue experiments suggest that the H2AZ-like rather than the H2AX-like function of H2AV is primarily required for normal hematopoiesis.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, Genetics, and Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5323, USA.
authors.forename: Melina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grigorian
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, Genetics, and Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5323, USA.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: DeBruhl
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, Genetics, and Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5323, USA lipsick@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Joseph S
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9231-571X
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lipsick
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000378:metabolism*; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006657:Histones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006720:Homozygote; D007814:Larva / Q000378:metabolism; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D010766:Phosphorylation; D034622:RNA Interference; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C573796:His2Av protein, Drosophila; D006657:Histones; D011994:Recombinant Proteins
keywords: Drosophila; H2AV; Hematopoiesis; Variant histone