CG6015 controls spermatogonia transit-amplifying divisions by epidermal growth factor receptor signaling in Drosophila testes

Abstract

Spermatogonia transit-amplifying (TA) divisions are crucial for the differentiation of germline stem cell daughters. However, the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that CG6015 was essential for spermatogonia TA-divisions and elongated spermatozoon development in Drosophila melanogaster. Spermatogonia deficient in CG6015 inhibited germline differentiation leading to the accumulation of undifferentiated cell populations. Transcriptome profiling using RNA sequencing indicated that CG6015 was involved in spermatogenesis, spermatid differentiation, and metabolic processes. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) revealed the relationship between CG6015 and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway. Unexpectedly, we discovered that phosphorylated extracellular regulated kinase (dpERK) signals were activated in germline stem cell (GSC)-like cells after reduction of CG6015 in spermatogonia. Moreover, Downstream of raf1 (Dsor1), a key downstream target of EGFR, mimicked the phenotype of CG6015, and germline dpERK signals were activated in spermatogonia of Dsor1 RNAi testes. Together, these findings revealed a potential regulatory mechanism of CG6015 via EGFR signaling during spermatogonia TA-divisions in Drosophila testes.

Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals cell landscape following antimony exposure during spermatogenesis in Drosophila testes

“…DNA staining highly condensed at the early-stage nuclei of germ cells and the nuclei of clusters of elongated spermatozoa in the Drosophila testis [16,23]. Based on the above observation, we next counted the number of elongated spermatid clusters and found a significant and dose-dependent decrease (Fig.…”

“…Immunofluorescence was carried out as described previously [16,23,56]. Briefly, fly testes were dissected in 1 × phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), fixed for 30 min in 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA), washed three times with 0.3% PBS-Triton X-100 (PBST), and incubated in 5% bovine serum albumin (BSA) for 30 min.…”

“…Drosophila has been used as an animal model for more than 100 years; discoveries in fruit flies have greatly contributed to our understanding of spermatogenesis and pollutant-mediated toxicity [14][15][16]. Spermatogenesis is a highly conserved process in Drosophila and mammalian testes and is well-understood from an anatomical and histological perspective [17,18], but the underlying regulatory foundations between environmental pollution and genetic heredity are poorly understood.…”

Long Non-coding RNA NRSN2-AS1 promotes ovarian cancer progression through targeting PTK2/β-catenin pathway

“…Immuno uorescence assays were conducted as previous descriptions 17,18,19,20 . Brie y, the slides containing target cells and tissues were incubated with primary and Alexa-Fluor secondary antibodies (Thermo Scienti c, Waltham, USA) orderly.…”

Structure and molecular basis of spermatid elongation in the Drosophila testis

“…Previous research has already investigated in-depth the various key factors involved in spermatogenesis in the Drosophila testis, especially in the stem cell niche regulation and meiosis [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Recent studies have also thrown light on the various aspects of spermatid elongation in Drosophila [22][23][24]. The loss of function of several genes in Drosophila and mammals leads to similar testicular phenotypes, thereby indicating that their roles during spermatogenesis are conserved [3,25].…”