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Ridwan SM, Antel M, Inaba M. Enrichment of Undifferentiated Germline and Somatic Cells from Drosophila Testes. Methods Mol Biol 2023; 2677:127-138. [PMID: 37464239 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3259-8_7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/20/2023]
Abstract
The Drosophila male germline provides a strong model system to understand numerous developmental and cell-biological processes, owing to a well-defined anatomy and cell type markers in combination with various genetic tools available for the Drosophila system. A major weakness of this system has been the difficulty of approaches for obtaining material for biochemical assays, proteomics, and genomic or transcriptomic profiling due to small-size and complex tissues. However, the recent development of techniques has started allowing us the usage of a low amount of material for these analyses and now we can strategize many new experiments. The method for enrichment or isolation of rare populations of cells is still challenging and should meaningfully influence the reliability of the results. Here, we provide our semi-optimized protocol of enrichment of undifferentiated germ cells and somatic cells from non-tumorous Drosophila testis, which we have successfully improved after multiple trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharif M Ridwan
- Department of Cell Biology, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, CT, USA
| | - Matthew Antel
- Department of Cell Biology, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, CT, USA
| | - Mayu Inaba
- Department of Cell Biology, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, CT, USA.
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2
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Nagai H, Miura M, Nakajima YI. Cellular mechanisms underlying adult tissue plasticity in Drosophila. Fly (Austin) 2022; 16:190-206. [PMID: 35470772 PMCID: PMC9045823 DOI: 10.1080/19336934.2022.2066952] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Adult tissues in Metazoa dynamically remodel their structures in response to environmental challenges including sudden injury, pathogen infection, and nutritional fluctuation, while maintaining quiescence under homoeostatic conditions. This characteristic, hereafter referred to as adult tissue plasticity, can prevent tissue dysfunction and improve the fitness of organisms in continuous and/or severe change of environments. With its relatively simple tissue structures and genetic tools, studies using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster have provided insights into molecular mechanisms that control cellular responses, particularly during regeneration and nutrient adaptation. In this review, we present the current understanding of cellular mechanisms, stem cell proliferation, polyploidization, and cell fate plasticity, all of which enable adult tissue plasticity in various Drosophila adult organs including the midgut, the brain, and the gonad, and discuss the organismal strategy in response to environmental changes and future directions of the research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroki Nagai
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Masayuki Miura
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yu-Ichiro Nakajima
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
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Vidaurre V, Chen X. Epigenetic regulation of drosophila germline stem cell maintenance and differentiation. Dev Biol 2021; 473:105-118. [PMID: 33610541 DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2021.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 01/26/2021] [Accepted: 02/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Gametogenesis is one of the most extreme cellular differentiation processes that takes place in Drosophila male and female germlines. This process begins at the germline stem cell, which undergoes asymmetric cell division (ACD) to produce a self-renewed daughter that preserves its stemness and a differentiating daughter cell that undergoes epigenetic and genomic changes to eventually produce haploid gametes. Research in molecular genetics and cellular biology are beginning to take advantage of the continually advancing genomic tools to understand: (1) how germ cells are able to maintain their identity throughout the adult reproductive lifetime, and (2) undergo differentiation in a balanced manner. In this review, we focus on the epigenetic mechanisms that address these two questions through their regulation of germline-soma communication to ensure germline stem cell identity and activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Velinda Vidaurre
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
| | - Xin Chen
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
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DeLuca SZ, Ghildiyal M, Pang LY, Spradling AC. Differentiating Drosophila female germ cells initiate Polycomb silencing by regulating PRC2-interacting proteins. eLife 2020; 9:56922. [PMID: 32773039 PMCID: PMC7438113 DOI: 10.7554/elife.56922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2020] [Accepted: 08/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Polycomb silencing represses gene expression and provides a molecular memory of chromatin state that is essential for animal development. We show that Drosophila female germline stem cells (GSCs) provide a powerful system for studying Polycomb silencing. GSCs have a non-canonical distribution of PRC2 activity and lack silenced chromatin like embryonic progenitors. As GSC daughters differentiate into nurse cells and oocytes, nurse cells, like embryonic somatic cells, silence genes in traditional Polycomb domains and in generally inactive chromatin. Developmentally controlled expression of two Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2)-interacting proteins, Pcl and Scm, initiate silencing during differentiation. In GSCs, abundant Pcl inhibits PRC2-dependent silencing globally, while in nurse cells Pcl declines and newly induced Scm concentrates PRC2 activity on traditional Polycomb domains. Our results suggest that PRC2-dependent silencing is developmentally regulated by accessory proteins that either increase the concentration of PRC2 at target sites or inhibit the rate that PRC2 samples chromatin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven Z DeLuca
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, United States
| | - Megha Ghildiyal
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, United States
| | - Liang-Yu Pang
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, United States
| | - Allan C Spradling
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, United States
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Shi Z, Lim C, Tran V, Cui K, Zhao K, Chen X. Single-cyst transcriptome analysis of Drosophila male germline stem cell lineage. Development 2020; 147:dev.184259. [PMID: 32122991 DOI: 10.1242/dev.184259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2019] [Accepted: 02/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The Drosophila male germline stem cell (GSC) lineage provides a great model to understand stem cell maintenance, proliferation, differentiation and dedifferentiation. Here, we use the Drosophila GSC lineage to systematically analyze the transcriptome of discrete but continuously differentiating germline cysts. We first isolated single cysts at each recognizable stage from wild-type testes, which were subsequently applied for RNA-seq analyses. Our data delineate a high-resolution transcriptome atlas in the entire male GSC lineage: the most dramatic switch occurs from early to late spermatocyte, followed by the change from the mitotic spermatogonia to early meiotic spermatocyte. By contrast, the transit-amplifying spermatogonia cysts display similar transcriptomes, suggesting common molecular features among these stages, which may underlie their similar behavior during both differentiation and dedifferentiation processes. Finally, distinct differentiating germ cell cyst samples do not exhibit obvious dosage compensation of X-chromosomal genes, even considering the paucity of X-chromosomal gene expression during meiosis, which is different from somatic cells. Together, our single cyst-resolution, genome-wide transcriptional profile analyses provide an unprecedented resource to understand many questions in both germ cell biology and stem cell biology fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhen Shi
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Cindy Lim
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Vuong Tran
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Kairong Cui
- Systems Biology Center (SBC), Division of Intramural Research (DIR), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, MSC 1674, Building 10, Room 7B05, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Keji Zhao
- Systems Biology Center (SBC), Division of Intramural Research (DIR), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive, MSC 1674, Building 10, Room 7B05, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Xin Chen
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
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Kahney EW, Snedeker JC, Chen X. Regulation of Drosophila germline stem cells. Curr Opin Cell Biol 2019; 60:27-35. [PMID: 31014993 DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2019.03.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2019] [Revised: 03/12/2019] [Accepted: 03/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
The asymmetric division of adult stem cells into one self-renewing stem cell and one differentiating cell is critical for maintaining homeostasis in many tissues. One paradigmatic model of this division is the Drosophila male and female germline stem cell, which provides two model systems not only sharing common features but also having distinct characteristics for studying asymmetric stem cell division in vivo. This asymmetric division is controlled by a combination of extrinsic signaling molecules and intrinsic factors that are either asymmetrically segregated or regulated differentially following division. In this review, we will discuss recent advances in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms guiding this asymmetric outcome, including extrinsic cues, intrinsic factors governing cell fate specification, and cell cycle control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth W Kahney
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Jonathan C Snedeker
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Xin Chen
- Department of Biology, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
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Kutateladze TG, Gozani O, Bienz M, Ostankovitch M. Histone modifications for chromatin dynamics and cellular plasticity. J Mol Biol 2019. [PMID: 28623961 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2017.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
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9
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Lebedeva LA, Yakovlev KV, Kozlov EN, Schedl P, Deshpande G, Shidlovskii YV. Transcriptional quiescence in primordial germ cells. Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol 2018; 53:579-595. [PMID: 30280955 DOI: 10.1080/10409238.2018.1506733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
In most animal species, newly formed primordial germ cells (PGCs) acquire the special characteristics that distinguish them from the surrounding somatic cells. Proper fate specification of the PGCs is coupled with transcriptional quiescence, whether they are segregated by determinative or inductive mechanisms. Inappropriate differentiation of PGCs into somatic cells is thought to be prevented due to repression of RNA polymerase (Pol) II-dependent transcription. In the case of a determinative mode of PGC formation (Drosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans, etc.), there is a broad downregulation of Pol II activity. By contrast, PGCs display only gene-specific repression in organisms that rely on inductive signaling-based mechanism (e.g., mice). In addition to the global block of Pol II activity in PGCs, gene expression can be suppressed in other ways, such as chromatin remodeling and Piwi-mediated RNAi. Here, we discuss the mechanisms responsible for the transcriptionally silent state of PGCs in common experimental animals, such as Drosophila, C. elegans, Danio rerio, Xenopus, and mouse. While a PGC-specific downregulation of transcription is a common feature among these organisms, the diverse nature of underlying mechanisms suggests that this functional trait likely evolved independently on several instances. We discuss the possible biological relevance of these silencing mechanisms vis-a-vis fate determination of PGCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lyubov A Lebedeva
- a Institute of Gene Biology , Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow , Russia
| | - Konstantin V Yakovlev
- a Institute of Gene Biology , Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow , Russia.,b Laboratory of Cytotechnology, National Scientific Center of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch , Russian Academy of Sciences , Vladivostok , Russia
| | - Eugene N Kozlov
- a Institute of Gene Biology , Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow , Russia
| | - Paul Schedl
- a Institute of Gene Biology , Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow , Russia.,c Department of Molecular Biology , Princeton University , Princeton , USA
| | - Girish Deshpande
- c Department of Molecular Biology , Princeton University , Princeton , USA
| | - Yulii V Shidlovskii
- a Institute of Gene Biology , Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow , Russia.,d Department of Biology and General Genetics, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University , Moscow , Russia
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A Targeted RNAi Screen Reveals Drosophila Female-Sterile Genes That Control the Size of Germline Stem Cell Niche During Development. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS 2018; 8:2345-2354. [PMID: 29764959 PMCID: PMC6027894 DOI: 10.1534/g3.118.200355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Adult stem cells maintain tissue homeostasis. This unique capability largely depends on the stem cell niche, a specialized microenvironment, which preserves stem cell identity through physical contacts and secreted factors. In many cancers, latent tumor cell niches are thought to house stem cells and aid tumor initiation. However, in developing tissue and cancer it is unclear how the niche is established. The well-characterized germline stem cells (GSCs) and niches in the Drosophila melanogaster ovary provide an excellent model to address this fundamental issue. As such, we conducted a small-scale RNAi screen of 560 individually expressed UAS-RNAi lines with targets implicated in female fertility. RNAi was expressed in the soma of larval gonads, and screening for reduced egg production and abnormal ovarian morphology was performed in adults. Twenty candidates that affect ovarian development were identified and subsequently knocked down in the soma only during niche formation. Feminization factors (Transformer, Sex lethal, and Virilizer), a histone methyltransferase (Enhancer of Zeste), a transcriptional machinery component (Enhancer of yellow 1), a chromatin remodeling complex member (Enhancer of yellow 3) and a chromosome passenger complex constituent (Incenp) were identified as potentially functioning in the control of niche size. The identification of these molecules highlights specific molecular events that are critical for niche formation and will provide a basis for future studies to fully understand the mechanisms of GSC recruitment and maintenance.
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From Flies to Mice: The Emerging Role of Non-Canonical PRC1 Members in Mammalian Development. EPIGENOMES 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/epigenomes2010004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
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