Svoysky Abigail J, Bellah Jeffrey L, Johnston Laura A
Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University Medical Center.
MicroPubl Biol. 2021 Dec 9;2021. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.000502. eCollection 2021.
Cell competition is a cell selection process that arises in growing tissues as a result of interactions between cells of different fitness. This behavior is also observed in Myc super-competition, where healthy wild type cells in growing wing discs of are outcompeted by nearby cells that express higher levels of the Myc oncogene. Most work on Myc super-competition has examined it in mixed populations of male and female larvae. However, as physiological and genetic differences between males and females could affect the competitive behavior of cells, we have investigated whether sex differences affect the process. Here we show that both male and female wing disc cells are subject to Myc super-competition. Female disc cells appear to be more sensitive to competitive elimination than male cells, potentially due to differences in baseline cellular Myc levels between the sexes. We also report sexual dimorphism of cell size and number between male and female growing wing discs that is independent of competition; wing discs and wing pouches from females are larger than males' due to larger cell size and cell number. We suggest that separately examining male and female tissues in cell competition assays could enhance our understanding of the effects of sex-specific pathways on cell and super-competition.
细胞竞争是一种细胞选择过程，它在生长的组织中因不同适应性的细胞之间的相互作用而产生。这种行为在Myc超级竞争中也能观察到，在果蝇生长的翅盘中，健康的野生型细胞会被附近表达更高水平Myc癌基因的细胞淘汰。大多数关于Myc超级竞争的研究都是在雄性和雌性幼虫的混合群体中进行的。然而，由于雄性和雌性之间的生理和遗传差异可能会影响细胞的竞争行为，我们研究了性别差异是否会影响这一过程。在这里，我们表明雄性和雌性翅盘细胞都受到Myc超级竞争的影响。雌性盘状细胞似乎比雄性细胞对竞争性消除更敏感，这可能是由于两性之间基线细胞Myc水平的差异。我们还报告了雄性和雌性生长中的翅盘之间细胞大小和数量的性别二态性，这与竞争无关；雌性的翅盘和翅袋比雄性的更大，这是由于细胞尺寸更大和细胞数量更多。我们建议在细胞竞争试验中分别检查雄性和雌性组织，这可能会增进我们对性别特异性途径对细胞和超级竞争影响的理解。
