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Identification of Drosophila type II neuroblast lineages containing transit amplifying ganglion mother cells.

ABSTRACT: Mammalian neural stem cells generate transit amplifying progenitors that expand the neuronal population, but these type of progenitors have not been studied in Drosophila. The Drosophila larval brain contains approximately 100 neural stem cells (neuroblasts) per brain lobe, which are thought to bud off smaller ganglion mother cells (GMCs) that each produce two post-mitotic neurons. Here, we use molecular markers and clonal analysis to identify a novel neuroblast cell lineage containing "transit amplifying GMCs" (TA-GMCs). TA-GMCs differ from canonical GMCs in several ways: each TA-GMC has nuclear Deadpan, cytoplasmic Prospero, forms Prospero crescents at mitosis, and generates up to 10 neurons; canonical GMCs lack Deadpan, have nuclear Prospero, lack Prospero crescents at mitosis, and generate two neurons. We conclude that there are at least two types of neuroblast lineages: a Type I lineage where GMCs generate two neurons, and a type II lineage where TA-GMCs have longer lineages. Type II lineages allow more neurons to be produced faster than Type I lineages, which may be advantageous in a rapidly developing organism like Drosophila.

SUBMITTER: Boone JQ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2804867 | biostudies-other | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Identification of Drosophila type II neuroblast lineages containing transit amplifying ganglion mother cells.

Boone Jason Q JQ Doe Chris Q CQ

Developmental neurobiology 20080801 9

Mammalian neural stem cells generate transit amplifying progenitors that expand the neuronal population, but these type of progenitors have not been studied in Drosophila. The Drosophila larval brain contains approximately 100 neural stem cells (neuroblasts) per brain lobe, which are thought to bud off smaller ganglion mother cells (GMCs) that each produce two post-mitotic neurons. Here, we use molecular markers and clonal analysis to identify a novel neuroblast cell lineage containing "transit ...[more]

PMID: 18548484

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Project description:Embryonic development results in the production of distinct tissue types, and different cell types within each tissue. A major goal of developmental biology is to uncover the "parts list" of cell types that comprise each organ. Here we perform single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of the Drosophila embryo to identify the genes that characterize different cell and tissue types during development. We assay three different timepoints, revealing a coordinated change in gene expression within each tissue. Interestingly, we find that the elav and Mhc genes, whose protein products are widely used as markers for neurons and muscles, respectively, show broad pan-embryonic expression, indicating the importance of post-transcriptional regulation. We next focus on the central nervous system (CNS), where we identify genes whose expression is enriched at each stage of neuronal differentiation: from neural progenitors, called neuroblasts, to their immediate progeny ganglion mother cells (GMCs), followed by new-born neurons, young neurons, and the most mature neurons. Finally, we ask whether the clonal progeny of a single neuroblast (NB7-1) share a similar transcriptional identity. Surprisingly, we find that clonal identity does not lead to transcriptional clustering, showing that neurons within a lineage are diverse, and that neurons with a similar transcriptional profile (e.g. motor neurons, glia) are distributed among multiple neuroblast lineages. Although each lineage consists of diverse progeny, we were able to identify a previously uncharacterized gene, Fer3, as an excellent marker for the NB7-1 lineage. Within the NB7-1 lineage, neurons which share a temporal identity (e.g. Hunchback, Kruppel, Pdm, and Castor temporal transcription factors in the NB7-1 lineage) have shared transcriptional features, allowing for the identification of candidate novel temporal factors or targets of the temporal transcription factors. In conclusion, we have characterized the embryonic transcriptome for all major tissue types and for three stages of development, as well as the first transcriptomic analysis of a single, identified neuroblast lineage, finding a lineage-enriched transcription factor.

Dataset Information

Identification of Drosophila type II neuroblast lineages containing transit amplifying ganglion mother cells.

Publications

Identification of Drosophila type II neuroblast lineages containing transit amplifying ganglion mother cells.

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