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Fine scale analysis of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster gonads reveals Programmed cell death 4 promotes the differentiation of female germline stem cells.

ABSTRACT: Germline stem cells (GSCs) are present in the gonads of Drosophila females and males, and their proper maintenance, as well as their correct differentiation, is essential for fertility and fecundity. The molecular characterization of factors involved in maintenance and differentiation is a major goal both in Drosophila and stem cell research. While genetic studies have identified many of these key factors, the use of genome-wide expression studies holds the potential to greatly increase our knowledge of these pathways.Here we report a genome-wide expression study that uses laser cutting microdissection to isolate germline stem cells, somatic niche cells, and early differentiating germ cells from female and male gonads. Analysis of this data, in association with two previously published genome-wide GSC data sets, revealed sets of candidate genes as putatively expressed in specific cell populations. Investigation of one of these genes, CG10990 the Drosophila ortholog of mammalian Programmed cell death 4 (Pdcd4), reveals expression in female and male germline stem cells and early differentiating daughter cells. Functional analysis demonstrates that while it is not essential for oogenesis or spermatogenesis, it does function to promote the differentiation of GSCs in females. Furthermore, in females, Pdcd4 genetically interacts with the key differentiation gene bag of marbles (bam) and the stem cell renewal factor eIF4A, suggesting a possible pathway for its function in differentiation.We propose that Pdcd4 promotes the differentiation of GSC daughter cells by relieving the eIF4A-mediated inhibition of Bam.

SUBMITTER: Cash AC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3322342 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Fine scale analysis of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster gonads reveals Programmed cell death 4 promotes the differentiation of female germline stem cells.

Cash Amy C AC Andrews Justen J

BMC developmental biology 20120117

<h4>Background</h4>Germline stem cells (GSCs) are present in the gonads of Drosophila females and males, and their proper maintenance, as well as their correct differentiation, is essential for fertility and fecundity. The molecular characterization of factors involved in maintenance and differentiation is a major goal both in Drosophila and stem cell research. While genetic studies have identified many of these key factors, the use of genome-wide expression studies holds the potential to greatl ...[more]

PMID: 22252300

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Project description:Estimating fine-scale recombination maps of Drosophila from population genomic data is a challenging problem, in particular because of the high background recombination rate. In this paper, a new computational method is developed to address this challenge. Through an extensive simulation study, it is demonstrated that the method allows more accurate inference, and exhibits greater robustness to the effects of natural selection and noise, compared to a well-used previous method developed for studying fine-scale recombination rate variation in the human genome. As an application, a genome-wide analysis of genetic variation data is performed for two Drosophila melanogaster populations, one from North America (Raleigh, USA) and the other from Africa (Gikongoro, Rwanda). It is shown that fine-scale recombination rate variation is widespread throughout the D. melanogaster genome, across all chromosomes and in both populations. At the fine-scale, a conservative, systematic search for evidence of recombination hotspots suggests the existence of a handful of putative hotspots each with at least a tenfold increase in intensity over the background rate. A wavelet analysis is carried out to compare the estimated recombination maps in the two populations and to quantify the extent to which recombination rates are conserved. In general, similarity is observed at very broad scales, but substantial differences are seen at fine scales. The average recombination rate of the X chromosome appears to be higher than that of the autosomes in both populations, and this pattern is much more pronounced in the African population than the North American population. The correlation between various genomic features-including recombination rates, diversity, divergence, GC content, gene content, and sequence quality-is examined using the wavelet analysis, and it is shown that the most notable difference between D. melanogaster and humans is in the correlation between recombination and diversity.

Dataset Information

Fine scale analysis of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster gonads reveals Programmed cell death 4 promotes the differentiation of female germline stem cells.

Publications

Fine scale analysis of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster gonads reveals Programmed cell death 4 promotes the differentiation of female germline stem cells.

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