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Germ cells commit somatic stem cells to differentiation following priming by PI3K/Tor activity in the Drosophila testis

Yuen, AC; Hillion, K-H; Wang, R; Amoyel, M; (2021) Germ cells commit somatic stem cells to differentiation following priming by PI3K/Tor activity in the Drosophila testis. PLoS Genetics , 17 (12) , Article e1009609. 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009609. Green open access

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Abstract

How and when potential becomes restricted in differentiating stem cell daughters is poorly understood. While it is thought that signals from the niche are actively required to prevent differentiation, another model proposes that stem cells can reversibly transit between multiple states, some of which are primed, but not committed, to differentiate. In the Drosophila testis, somatic cyst stem cells (CySCs) generate cyst cells, which encapsulate the germline to support its development. We find that CySCs are maintained independently of niche self-renewal signals if activity of the PI3K/Tor pathway is inhibited. Conversely, PI3K/Tor is not sufficient alone to drive differentiation, suggesting that it acts to license cells for differentiation. Indeed, we find that the germline is required for differentiation of CySCs in response to PI3K/Tor elevation, indicating that final commitment to differentiation involves several steps and intercellular communication. We propose that CySC daughter cells are plastic, that their fate depends on the availability of neighbouring germ cells, and that PI3K/Tor acts to induce a primed state for CySC daughters to enable coordinated differentiation with the germline.

Type: Article
Title: Germ cells commit somatic stem cells to differentiation following priming by PI3K/Tor activity in the Drosophila testis
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009609
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009609
Language: English
Additional information: © 2021 Yuen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10141313
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