Project description:The Drosophila Taiman (Tai) protein is homologous to the human steroid-receptor coactivators SRC1-3 and activates transcription in complex with the 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) receptor (EcR). Tai has roles in intestinal homeostasis, germline maintenance, cell motility and proliferation through interactions with EcR and the coactivator Yorkie (Yki). Tai also promotes invasion of tumor cells in adjacent organs, but this pro-invasive mechanism is undefined. Here we show that Tai expression transforms sessile pupal wing cells into an invasive mass that penetrates the adjacent thorax during a period of high 20E. Candidate analysis confirms a reliance on elements of the 20E and Hippo pathways, such as Yki and the Yki-Tai target dilp8. Screening the Tai-induced wing transcriptome detects enrichment for innate immune factors, including the Spätzle (Spz) family of secreted Toll ligands that induce apoptosis during cell competition. Tai-expressing wing cells induce immune signaling and apoptosis among adjacent thoracic cells, and genetic reduction of spz, Toll or the rpr/hid/grim pro-apoptotic factors each suppresses invasion, suggesting an intercellular Spz-Toll circuit supports killing-mediated invasion. Modeling these interactions in larval epithelia confirms that Tai kills neighboring cells via a mechanism involving Toll, Spz factors, and the Spz-inhibitor Necrotic. Tai-expressing cells evade death signals by repressing the immune deficiency (IMD) pathway, which operates in parallel to Toll to control NFkB activity, and independently regulates JNK activity. In sum, these findings suggest that Tai promotes competitive cell killing via Spz-Toll, and that this killing mechanism supports pathologic intertissue invasion in Drosophila.
Project description:Tight regulation of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated inflammatory responses is important in innate immunity. Here, we show that T cell death-associated gene 51 (TDAG51/PHLDA1) is a novel coactivator of the transcription factor FoxO1, regulating inflammatory mediator production in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory response. TDAG51 induction by LPS stimulation was mediated by the TLR2/4 signaling pathway in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs). LPS-induced inflammatory mediator production was significantly decreased in TDAG51-deficient BMMs. In TDAG51-deficient mice, LPS- or pathogenic Escherichia coli infection-induced lethal shock was reduced by decreasing serum proinflammatory cytokine levels. The recruitment of 14-3-3 to FoxO1 was competitively inhibited by the TDAG51-FoxO1 interaction, leading to blockade of FoxO1 cytoplasmic translocation and thereby strengthening FoxO1 nuclear accumulation. TDAG51/FoxO1 double-deficient BMMs showed significantly reduced inflammatory mediator production compared with TDAG51- or FoxO1-deficient BMMs. TDAG51/FoxO1 double deficiency protected mice against LPS- or pathogenic E. coli infection-induced lethal shock by weakening the systemic inflammatory response. Thus, these results indicate that TDAG51 acts as a coactivator of the transcription factor FoxO1, leading to strengthened FoxO1 activity in the LPS-induced inflammatory response.
Project description:The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction between diet - primary meat and fiber - and polymorphisms in Toll-like receptors in relation to risk of colorectal cancer in a Danish prospective cohort.
Project description:Tissue morphogenesis requires the spatial control over actomyosin contractility to drive cell shape changes. How developmental patterning information controls cell mechanics is poorly understood. In the Drosophila embryo ectoderm, Myosin-II is enriched at the interface between antero-posterior neighboring cells, leading to planar polarized cell intercalation. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are required for planar polarized Myosin-II activation at junctions and Toll receptors provide a positional code underlying this process. How Toll receptors polarize actomyosin contractility remains unknown. Here we report that cells expressing different levels of a single Toll receptor Toll-8 activate Myosin-II at their interface. Surprisingly, the Toll-8 intracellular domain is not required for signaling at cell interfaces suggesting signaling by proxy. We found that Toll-8 forms a molecular complex with the adhesion GPCR Cirl/Latrophilin that is required for Toll-8 dependent junctional Myosin-II activation. Strikingly, the interfaces between Cirl expressing and cirl mutant cells also activate Myosin-II suggesting that Toll-8 induces Cirl asymmetric signaling at cell interfaces. We further showed that Toll-8 recruits Cirl both in trans and in cis, inducing asymmetric Cirl localization at the boundary of the Toll-8 expression domain. Finally, we found that Toll-8 and Cirl exhibit dynamic interdependent planar polarization when neighboring cells express different levels of Toll-8. Through this feedback, Toll-8 and Cirl self-organize planar polarized signaling.
Project description:Abnormal placentation is a fundamental cause of pregnancy complications including preeclampsia, miscarriage, and intrauterine growth restriction. Proliferation, differentiation, migration, and invasion are key properties of trophoblast cells that regulate trophoblast functions. Imbalance of these cellular processes is linked to placental pathologies. Using HTR-8/SVneo immortalized human trophoblast cells, we demonstrate that steroid receptor coactivator-2 (SRC-2), a transcriptional regulator of nuclear receptors, is essential for extravillous trophoblast cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Genome-wide transcriptomics identified an SRC-2–dependent transcriptome in HTR-8/SVneo cells that includes a diverse spectrum of proteins involved in placental tissue development and function. To emphasize the utility of this transcriptomics data set, we demonstrate that WNT family member 9A (WNT9A) is not only a molecular target of SRC-2 but also crucial for maintaining many of the cellular properties of human extravillous trophoblast cells.