1. Screening and Analysis of Janelia FlyLight Project Enhancer-Gal4 Strains Identifies Multiple Gene Enhancers Active During Hematopoiesis in Normal and Wasp-Challenged Drosophila Larvae
- Author
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Tsuyoshi Tokusumi, Mark S Brahier, Victoria Lam, Jessica R. Stoller-Conrad, Robert A. Schulz, Yumiko Tokusumi, and Paul T. Kroeger
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Hemocytes ,Wasps ,QH426-470 ,Biology ,Investigations ,Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid ,Blood cell ,03 medical and health sciences ,gene enhancer-Gal4 line screening ,Hemolymph ,Genetics ,Transcriptional regulation ,medicine ,E2F1 ,Animals ,Drosophila Proteins ,Enhancer ,Molecular Biology ,Gene ,Genetics (clinical) ,wasp-challenged larvae ,Drosophila hematopoiesis ,fungi ,Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ,Cell Differentiation ,Forkhead Transcription Factors ,Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ,Hematopoietic Stem Cells ,Phenotype ,larval hemocyte essential genes ,Hematopoiesis ,Haematopoiesis ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Drosophila melanogaster ,Enhancer Elements, Genetic ,blood cell-specific gene expression ,Larva ,E2F1 Transcription Factor ,Signal Transduction - Abstract
A GFP expression screen has been conducted on >1000 Janelia FlyLight Project enhancer-Gal4 lines to identify transcriptional enhancers active in the larval hematopoietic system. A total of 190 enhancers associated with 87 distinct genes showed activity in cells of the third instar larval lymph gland and hemolymph. That is, gene enhancers were active in cells of the lymph gland posterior signaling center (PSC), medullary zone (MZ), and/or cortical zone (CZ), while certain of the transcriptional control regions were active in circulating hemocytes. Phenotypic analyses were undertaken on 81 of these hematopoietic-expressed genes, with nine genes characterized in detail as to gain- and loss-of-function phenotypes in larval hematopoietic tissues and blood cells. These studies demonstrated the functional requirement of the cut gene for proper PSC niche formation, the hairy, Btk29A, and E2F1 genes for blood cell progenitor production in the MZ domain, and the longitudinals lacking, dFOXO, kayak, cap-n-collar, and delilah genes for lamellocyte induction and/or differentiation in response to parasitic wasp challenge and infestation of larvae. Together, these findings contribute substantial information to our knowledge of genes expressed during the larval stage of Drosophila hematopoiesis and newly identify multiple genes required for this developmental process.
- Published
- 2016