Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.
EMBO Rep. 2011 Jun;12(6):519-26. doi: 10.1038/embor.2011.80. Epub 2011 May 6.
Drosophila ovarian germline stem cells (GSCs) are maintained by the extracellular BMP2/4 orthologue Dpp, which is produced from the surrounding somatic niche. The Dpp signal has a short range; it induces a response in GSCs within the niche, but is rapidly extinguished in their progeny only one cell-diameter away. To ensure the correct balance between stem-cell maintenance and differentiation, several regulatory mechanisms that modulate the Dpp signal at many stages of the pathway have been described. Here, we discuss the nature of the ovarian Dpp signal and review the catalogue of mechanisms that regulate it, demonstrating how the exquisite modulation of Dpp signalling in this context can result in precise and robust control of stem-cell fate. This modulation is applicable to other stem-cell environments that use BMPs as a niche signal, and the regulatory mechanisms are conceptually relevant to several other stem-cell systems.
果蝇卵巢生殖干细胞 (GSCs) 由周围的体细胞龛产生的细胞外 BMP2/4 同源物 Dpp 维持。Dpp 信号具有短程作用；它在龛内的 GSCs 中诱导反应，但在其仅一个细胞直径远的后代中迅速失活。为了确保干细胞维持和分化之间的正确平衡，已经描述了几种在途径的许多阶段调节 Dpp 信号的调节机制。在这里，我们讨论了卵巢 Dpp 信号的性质，并回顾了调节它的机制目录，展示了如何在这种情况下对 Dpp 信号的精细调节可以导致对干细胞命运的精确和稳健控制。这种调节适用于其他使用 BMP 作为龛信号的干细胞环境，并且调节机制在概念上与其他几个干细胞系统相关。
