Novel roles for GATAe in growth, maintenance and proliferation of cell populations in the Drosophila renal tubule

Abstract

The GATA family of transcription factors is implicated in numerous developmental and physiological processes in metazoans. In Drosophila melanogaster, five different GATA factor genes (pannier, serpent, grain, GATAd and GATAe) have been reported as essential in the development and identity of multiple tissues, including the midgut, heart and brain. Here, we present a novel role for GATAe in the function and homeostasis of the Drosophila renal (Malpighian) tubule. We demonstrate that reduced levels of GATAe gene expression in tubule principal cells induce uncontrolled cell proliferation, resulting in tumorous growth with associated altered expression of apoptotic and carcinogenic key genes. Furthermore, we uncover the involvement of GATAe in the maintenance of stellate cells and migration of renal and nephritic stem cells into the tubule. Our findings of GATAe as a potential master regulator in the events of growth control and cell survival required for the maintenance of the Drosophila renal tubule could provide new insights into the molecular pathways involved in the formation and maintenance of a functional tissue and kidney disease.

The septate junction protein Mesh is required for epithelial morphogenesis, ion transport, and paracellular permeability in the Drosophila Malpighian tubule

“…10B=). Nevertheless, observations made in the present study support temporal and tissue-specific complexity of the regulation of epithelial morphology and polarization in Drosophila (5,13,39,44,58,70).…”

“…All data are expressed as means Ϯ SE. (11,17,44,58). The lack of fluid secretion in developmental mesh knockdown tubules is likely due to the profound abnormalities in tubule morphology.…”

“…To examine the role of Mesh in the molecular organization of sSJs in the Malpighian tubules, we analyzed the localization of other sSJ components in developmental mesh knockdown tubules. We focused on Dlg, Tsp2A, and Ssk, the only other known proteins shown to be localized to the fly tubule sSJs (17,32,44,81). Co-immunofluorescence staining of Mesh and Dlg showed their overlapping expression at sSJs in control tubule main segments (Fig.…”

Physiology, Development, and Disease Modeling in the Drosophila Excretory System

“…Despite their tiny size (1.5-3mm long, 35 mm wide, and each containing 200 cells; Wessing and Eichelberg 1978;Sözen et al 1997;Yerushalmi et al 2018;Martínez-Corrales et al 2019) the tubules transport fluid at a record-breaking rate (Dow et al 1994), so generating a primary urine that is acted on by the lower tubule and hindgut. This rapid flux facilitates the rapid removal of wastes and toxic solutes, at the cost of ion, water, and solute loss that must be balanced by selective hindgut reabsorption.…”

The septate junction protein Snakeskin is critical for epithelial barrier function and tissue homeostasis in the Malpighian tubules of adultDrosophila

“…CC-BY 4.0 International license perpetuity. It is made available under a preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in The copyright holder for this this version posted December 15, 2020. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.14.422678 doi: bioRxiv preprint 5 renal stem cells (Martínez-Corrales et al, 2019;Singh and Hou, 2009;Singh et al, 2011;Takashima et al, 2013;Wang and Spradling, 2020), yet to what extent these potentially proliferative cells contribute to tissue repair/homeostasis is unknown.…”