BackgroundIn metazoans, the hematopoietic system plays a key role both in normal development and in defense of the organism. In Drosophila, the cellular immune response involves three types of blood cells: plasmatocytes, crystal cells and lamellocytes. This last cell type is barely present in healthy larvae, but its production is strongly induced upon wasp parasitization or in mutant contexts affecting larval blood cell homeostasis. Notably, several zygotic mutations leading to melanotic mass (or "tumor") formation in larvae have been associated to the deregulated differentiation of lamellocytes. To gain further insights into the gene regulatory network and the mechanisms controlling larval blood cell homeostasis, we conducted a tissue-specific loss of function screen using hemocyte-specific Gal4 drivers and UAS-dsRNA transgenic lines.ResultsBy targeting around 10% of the Drosophila genes, this in vivo RNA interference screen allowed us to recover 59 melanotic tumor suppressor genes. In line with previous studies, we show that melanotic tumor formation is associated with the precocious differentiation of stem-cell like blood progenitors in the larval hematopoietic organ (the lymph gland) and the spurious differentiation of lamellocytes. We also find that melanotic tumor formation can be elicited by defects either in the fat body, the embryo-derived hemocytes or the lymph gland. In addition, we provide a definitive confirmation that lymph gland is not the only source of lamellocytes as embryo-derived plasmatocytes can differentiate into lamellocytes either upon wasp infection or upon loss of function of the Friend of GATA cofactor U-shaped.ConclusionsIn this study, we identify 55 genes whose function had not been linked to blood cell development or function before in Drosophila. Moreover our analyses reveal an unanticipated plasticity of embryo-derived plasmatocytes, thereby shedding new light on blood cell lineage relationship, and pinpoint the Friend of GATA transcription cofactor U-shaped as a key regulator of the plasmatocyte to lamellocyte transformation.

Members of the RUNX and GATA transcription factor families play critical roles during hematopoiesis from Drosophila to mammals. In Drosophila, the formation of the crystal cell hematopoietic lineage depends on the continuous expression of the lineage-specific RUNX factor Lozenge (Lz) and on its interaction with the GATA factor Serpent (Srp). Crystal cells are the main source of prophenoloxidases (proPOs), the enzymes required for melanization. By analyzing the promoter regions of several insect proPOs, we identify a conserved GATA/RUNX cis-regulatory module that ensures the crystal cell-specific expression of the three Drosophila melanogaster proPO. We demonstrate that activation of this module requires the direct binding of both Srp and Lz. Interestingly, a similar GATA/RUNX signature is over-represented in crystal cell differentiation markers, allowing us to identify new Srp/Lz target genes by genome-wide screening of Drosophila promoter regions. Finally, we show that the expression of lz in the crystal cells also relies on Srp/Lz-mediated activation via a similar module, indicating that crystal cell fate choice maintenance and activation of the differentiation program are coupled. Based on our observations, we propose that this GATA/RUNX cis-regulatory module may be reiteratively used during hematopoietic development through evolution.