A Serrate-expressing signaling center controls Drosophila hematopoiesis

Tim Lebestky; Seung-Hye Jung; Utpal Banerjee

doi:10.1101/gad.1052803

A Serrate-expressing signaling center controls Drosophila hematopoiesis

¹Molecular Biology Institute, ²Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, Biological Chemistry, and Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

Abstract

The differentiation of Drosophila blood cells relies on a functional hierarchy between the GATA protein, Serpent (Srp), and multiple lineage-specific transcription factors, such as the AML1-like protein, Lozenge (Lz). Two major branches of Drosophilahematopoiesis give rise to plasmatocytes/macrophages and crystal cells. Serrate signaling through the Notch pathway is critical in the regulation of Lz expression and the specification of crystal cell precursors, thus providing a key distinction between the two lineages. The expression of Serrate marks a discrete cluster of cells in the lymph gland, a signaling center, with functional similarities to stromal signaling in mammalian hematopoiesis.

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Footnotes

↵3 Present address: Department of Biology 216-76, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
↵4 These authors contributed equally to this work.
↵5 Corresponding author.
E-MAIL banerjee{at}mbi.ucla.edu; FAX (310) 206-9062.
Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1052803.
- Received November 8, 2002.
- Accepted December 9, 2002.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press