Role of the Notch pathway in differentiation of Drosophila blood cells

A functional genomics screen identifying blood cell development genes inDrosophilaby undergraduates participating in a course-based research experience

“…KEGG analysis of the secondary screen candidate gene subsets also identified three additional enriched functional groups, Notch signaling pathway (dme04330), FoxO signaling pathway (dme04068), and Protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum (dme04141). It is interesting that Notch signaling pathway was identified twice by RNAi, once in the PSC ( Antp-GAL4 ) and once in maturing cells ( Hml Δ -GAL4 ), as both cell types have known roles for Notch signaling during hematopoiesis ( Lebestky et al 2003 ; Mukherjee et al 2011 ; Ferguson and Martinez-Agosto 2014 ; Blanco-Obregon et al 2017 ). Finding enrichment of FoxO signaling pathway by RNAi in the PSC ( Antp-GAL4 ) is based upon identifying the genes chico , encoding the Insulin Receptor Substrate homolog, and babo , encoding the TGF-β/Activin receptor ( Table 5 ).…”

“…It is well established that functional disruption of early endosomal trafficking (e.g., mutation of Syx7 or Rab5 ) can cause a variety of cellular defects including loss of apicobasal polarity, increased proliferation, and aberrant activation of signaling pathways such as Notch and EGFR ( Vieira et al 1996 ; Lu and Bilder 2005 ; Vaccari and Bilder 2005 ; Fortini and Bilder 2009 ; Reimels and Pfleger 2015 ). The finding of Hsc70-4 stands out because it is a known regulator of Notch signaling ( Hing et al 1999 ), important in hematopoiesis ( Duvic et al 2002 ; Lebestky et al 2003 ; Mandal et al 2004 ; Mukherjee et al 2011 ; Ferguson and Martinez-Agosto 2014 ; Small et al 2014 ; Blanco-Obregon et al 2017 ), but has also been functionally linked to clathrin-mediated vesicle formation and mRNA splicing ( Chang et al 2002 ; Herold et al 2009 ).…”