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The mir‐7 and bag of marbles genes regulate Hedgehog pathway signaling in blood cell progenitors in Drosophila larval lymph glands
Author(s) -
Tokusumi Tsuyoshi,
Tokusumi Yumiko,
Schulz Robert A.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
genesis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.093
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1526-968X
pISSN - 1526-954X
DOI - 10.1002/dvg.23210
Subject(s) - hedgehog , progenitor cell , hedgehog signaling pathway , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , patched , haematopoiesis , progenitor , signal transduction , smoothened , psychological repression , microrna , stem cell , genetics , gene , gene expression
Summary Hedgehog (Hh) pathway signaling is crucial for the maintenance of blood cell progenitors in the lymph gland hematopoietic organ present in Drosophila third instar larvae. Previous studies from our lab have likewise shown the importance of the mir‐7 and bag of marbles ( bam ) genes in maintaining the progenitor state. Thus, we sought to investigate a possible interaction between the Hh pathway and mir‐7 / bam in the prohemocyte population within this hematopoietic tissue. Gain of function mir‐7 was able to rescue a blood cell progenitor depletion phenotype caused by Patched (Ptc) inhibition of Hh pathway signaling in these cells. Similarly, expression of a dominant/negative version of Ptc was able to rescue the severe reduction of prohemocytes due to bam loss of function. Furthermore, we demonstrated that Suppressor of fused [Su(fu)], another known inhibitor of Hh signaling, likely serves as a translational repression target of the mir‐7 miRNA. Our results suggest the mir‐7 / bam combination regulates the Hh signaling network through repression of Su(fu) to maintain hemocyte progenitors in the larval lymph gland.