Environmental stresses experienced during development exert many long-term effects upon health and disease. For example, chemical oxidants or genetic perturbations that induce low levels of reactive oxygen species can extend lifespan in several species. In some cases, the beneficial effects of low-dose oxidants are attributed to adaptive protective mechanisms such as mitohormesis, which involve long-term increases in the expression of stress response genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConstant renewal of cells occurs in most tissues throughout the adult lifetime and is insured by the activity of resident stem cells. Recent work has demonstrated the presence of adult stem cells in the Drosophila intestine and consequently, the Drosophila intestine has become a powerful model to understand adult stem cells in vivo. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the mechanisms controlling cell fate decisions of the intestinal stem cells with a particular focus on the role of the Notch pathway in this process.
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