Determination of Asymmetric Cell Division in the Drosophila Larval Central Nervous System
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Date
1997
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Abstract
Neuroblasts in the central nervous system of Drosophila have been increasingly utilized as a model for stem-cell study due to their clearly defined asymmetric division pattern and ease of genetic, cellular, and molecular analysis. This research involved looking at the control of asymmetric division in the different populations of neuroblasts throughout the larval instars using pros expression as a marker for asymmetric division. The pros protein is asymmetrically localized in the Ganglion mother cell and is necessary for establishing Ganglion mother cell fate. The results indicate that the role of pros in establishing GMC cell fate is implicated in the larva in addition to the embryo and that pros would be a good marker for most asymmetric division in the larval stages. However, pros is not an universal marker. Although it is expressed in the thoracic and central brain neuroblasts, it is not expressed in the asymmetrically dividing optic lobe neuroblasts, indicating that another mechanism for establishing cell fate in the optic lobe needs to be explored. Finally, staining with trol mutants and preliminary staining with ana mutants indicate that pros expression is coupled with the activation of cell division.
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Program year: 1996/1997
Digitized from print original stored in HDR
Digitized from print original stored in HDR
Keywords
Drosophila, neuroblasts, stem-cell study, asymmetric division, pros expression