The Taub Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Dev Biol. 2019 Jul 1;451(1):79-85. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2019.02.001. Epub 2019 Feb 5.
The terminal cells of the larval Drosophila tracheal system extend dozens of branched cellular processes, most of which become hollow intracellular tubes that support gas exchange with internal tissues. Previously, we undertook a forward genetic mosaic screen to uncover the pathways regulating terminal cell size, morphogenesis, and the generation and maintenance of new intracellular tubes. Our initial work identified several mutations affecting terminal cell size and branch number, and suggested that branch complexity and cell size are typically coupled but could be genetically separated. To deepen our understanding of these processes, we have further characterized and determined the molecular identities of mutations in the genes sprout, denuded and asthmatic, that had been implicated in our initial screen. Here we reveal the molecular identity of these genes and describe their function in the context of the TOR and Hippo pathways, which are widely appreciated to be key regulators of cell and organ size.
幼虫果蝇气管系统的终末细胞延伸出数十个分支的细胞过程，其中大多数成为支持与内部组织进行气体交换的中空细胞内管。以前，我们进行了正向遗传镶嵌筛选，以揭示调节终末细胞大小、形态发生以及新的细胞内管生成和维持的途径。我们的初步工作确定了几个影响终末细胞大小和分支数量的突变，并表明分支复杂性和细胞大小通常是耦合的，但可以在遗传上分开。为了更深入地了解这些过程，我们进一步对参与我们初始筛选的 sprout、denuded 和 asthmatic 基因的突变进行了表征和确定了它们的分子身份。在这里，我们揭示了这些基因的分子身份，并描述了它们在 TOR 和 Hippo 途径中的功能，这两个途径被广泛认为是细胞和器官大小的关键调节剂。
