Cellular mechanisms underlying adult tissue plasticity in Drosophila

Abstract

Adult tissues in Metazoa dynamically remodel their structures in response to environmental challenges including sudden injury, pathogen infection, and nutritional fluctuation, while maintaining quiescence under homoeostatic conditions. This characteristic, hereafter referred to as adult tissue plasticity, can prevent tissue dysfunction and improve the fitness of organisms in continuous and/or severe change of environments. With its relatively simple tissue structures and genetic tools, studies using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster have provided insights into molecular mechanisms that control cellular responses, particularly during regeneration and nutrient adaptation. In this review, we present the current understanding of cellular mechanisms, stem cell proliferation, polyploidization, and cell fate plasticity, all of which enable adult tissue plasticity in various Drosophila adult organs including the midgut, the brain, and the gonad, and discuss the organismal strategy in response to environmental changes and future directions of the research.

Highly regenerative species-specific genes improve age-associated features in the adultDrosophilamidgut

“…In the adult midgut, intestinal stem cells (ISCs) selfrenew ISCs themselves and also generate differentiating progenitor cells called enteroblasts (EBs) and enteroendocrine progenitors (EEPs), which eventually differentiate into absorptive enterocytes (ECs) and secretory enteroendocrine cells (EEs), respectively (Fig. 3A) [21][22][23][24]. The adult midgut activates proliferation of ISCs in response to orally-treated harmful chemicals such as paraquat and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), a regenerative response that is essential for organismal survival [21,[25][26][27][28].…”

“…3A) [21][22][23][24]. The adult midgut activates proliferation of ISCs in response to orally-treated harmful chemicals such as paraquat and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), a regenerative response that is essential for organismal survival [21,[25][26][27][28]. We thus expressed HRJDs in ISCs and EBs using the esg-Gal4 (esg-Gal4>UAS-HRJDa/b) driver and tested survival against paraquat/DSS damage.…”

A perspective on Drosophila genetics and its insight into human neurodegenerative disease

“…Another impressive feature of the fly is the way in which the animal can so accurately reflect different disease situations, including some that Drosophila normally does not encounter, to allow extraordinary genetic insight. Models beyond neurodegenerative disease include cancer and cancer metastasis ( Pagliarini and Xu, 2003 ; Enomoto et al, 2018 ; Liu et al, 2022 ), autism ( Tian et al, 2017 ; Dahlhaus, 2018 ), regeneration ( Coupe and Bossing, 2022 ; Nagai et al, 2022 ), kidney disease ( Dow et al, 2022 ), metabolic disease ( Liguori et al, 2021 ; Moraes and Montagne, 2021 ), and sleep ( Chakravarti et al, 2017 ).…”