Intrinsic dorsoventral patterning and extrinsic EGFR signaling genes control glial cell development in the Drosophila nervous system

Abstract

Dorsoventral patterning and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling genes are essential for determining neural identity and differentiation of the Drosophila nervous system. Their role in glial cell development in the Drosophila nervous system is not clearly established. Our study demonstrated that the dorsoventral patterning genes, vnd, ind, and msh, are intrinsically essential for the proper expression of a master glial cell regulator, gcm, and a differentiation gene, repo, in the lateral glia. In addition, we showed that esg is particularly required for their expression in the peripheral glia. These results indicate that the dorsoventral patterning and EGFR signaling genes are essential for identity determination and differentiation of the lateral glia by regulating proper expression of gcm and repo in the lateral glia from the early glial development. In contrast, overexpression of vnd, msh, spi, and Egfr genes repressed the expression of Repo in the ventral neuroectoderm, indicating that maintenance of correct columnar identity along the dorsoventral axis by proper expression of these genes is essential for restrictive formation of glial precursor cells in the lateral neuroectoderm. Therefore, the dorsoventral patterning and EGFR signaling genes play essential roles in correct identity determination and differentiation of lateral glia in the Drosophila nervous system.

Drosophila Embryonic CNS Development: Neurogenesis, Gliogenesis, Cell Fate, and Differentiation

“…There are multiple, modular enhancers that control lineage-specific gcm transcription; for example, a distinct control element has been identified that drives expression only in the GB 6-4A lineage (Jones et al 2004). These lineage-specific gcm control modules likely require input from the same CNS patterning TFs and signaling proteins that drive NB development (see Neural Precursor Specification) (Kim et al 2015). Gcm activates the reversed polarity (repo) TF gene.…”

Genomic Analysis of Genotype-by-Social Environment Interaction for Drosophila melanogaster Aggressive Behavior

“…Among these were AP-2sigma, which is involved in neurogenesis (Neumüller et al 2011); Egfr, which is believed to be related to differentiation of the nervous system (Kim et al 2015); a transciption factor that promotes neural progenitors, pnt (Zhu et al 2011); wg, which controls the growth of dendrites of periphery sensory neurons (Li et al 2016); Frq2, which is believed to control neurotransmitter secretion (Attrill et al 2016); and sgl which has been previously associated with Drosophila aggressive behavior (Edwards et al 2006). Three genes (CG17821, CG31141, Elo68) about which there is no prior knowledge, were also represented by two or more GO terms in the social environment.…”

Reduced Neuronal Transcription of Escargot, the Drosophila Gene Encoding a Snail-Type Transcription Factor, Promotes Longevity

“…The best known neuronal function of Esg and other Snail family proteins is to control asymmetric neuroblast division during embryonic development (Ashraf and Ip, 2001 ; Cai et al, 2001 , 2003 ; Wodarz and Huttner, 2003 ) via two distinct highly conserved mechanisms: one functions throughout mitosis and is implemented via the control of inscuteable and string , the other acts during anaphase/telophase and is inscuteable -independent. There are data indicating that during embryogenesis esg has other functions related to the development of the nervous system (Hartl et al, 2011 ; Kim et al, 2015 ; Ramat et al, 2016 ). One might suggest that it is a decrease in esg transcription at the developmental stages, in particular, at the embryonic stage that matters for longevity.…”