The extracellular protease AdamTS‐B inhibits vein formation in the Drosophila wing

Abstract

Summary Vein patterning in the Drosophila wing provides a powerful tool to study regulation of various signaling pathways. Here we show that the ADAMTS extracellular protease AdamTS‐B (CG4096) is expressed in the embryonic wing imaginal disc precursor cells and the wing imaginal disc, and functions to inhibit wing vein formation. Knock‐down of AdamTS‐B displayed posterior crossveins (PCVs) with either extra branches or deltas, or wider PCVs, and a wandering distal tip of the L5 longitudinal vein. Conversely, over‐expression of AdamTS‐B resulted in a complete absence of the PCV, an incomplete anterior crossvein, and missing distal end of the L5 longitudinal vein. We conclude that AdamTS‐B inhibits wing vein formation through negative regulation of signaling pathways, possibly BMP as well as Egfr, displaying the complexity of roles for this family of extracellular proteases.

Simulation and in vivo experimentation predict AdamTS‐A location of function during caudal visceral mesoderm migration in Drosophila

“…AdamTS-B potentially acts through the Egfr and/or BMP pathways. 61,62 AdamTS-B F I G U R E 7 Model of AdamTS-A function in CVM migration. In individual cell migration, modeled here using CVM cells, AdamTS-A (orange) seems to function when and where it is needed to cleave connections between the migrating cell (green) and the ECM (blue).…”

“…Moreover, AdamTS‐B negatively regulates wing vein formation in the adult wing, a process determined by cell fate and not cell migration. AdamTS‐B potentially acts through the Egfr and/or BMP pathways 61,62 . AdamTS‐B has already been shown to sequester Egfr ligands to prevent Egfr signaling 61 .…”