Adult Drosophila Lack Hematopoiesis but Rely on a Blood Cell Reservoir at the Respiratory Epithelia to Relay Infection Signals to Surrounding Tissues.

The use of adult Drosophila melanogaster as a model for hematopoiesis or organismal immunity has been debated. Addressing this question, we identify an extensive reservoir of blood cells (hemocytes) at the respiratory epithelia (tracheal air sacs) of the thorax and head. Lineage tracing and functional analyses demonstrate that the majority of adult hemocytes are phagocytic macrophages (plasmatocytes) from the embryonic lineage that parallels vertebrate tissue macrophages.

Dynamic Notch signalling regulates neural stem cell state progression in the Drosophila optic lobe.

Background: Neural stem cells generate all of the neurons and glial cells in the central nervous system, both during development and in the adult to maintain homeostasis. In the Drosophila optic lobe, neuroepithelial cells progress through two transient progenitor states, PI and PII, before transforming into neuroblasts. Here we analyse the role of Notch signalling in the transition from neuroepithelial cells to neuroblasts.

Regulation of Drosophila hematopoietic sites by Activin-β from active sensory neurons.

An outstanding question in animal development, tissue homeostasis and disease is how cell populations adapt to sensory inputs. During Drosophila larval development, hematopoietic sites are in direct contact with sensory neuron clusters of the peripheral nervous system (PNS), and blood cells (hemocytes) require the PNS for their survival and recruitment to these microenvironments, known as Hematopoietic Pockets. Here we report that Activin-β, a TGF-β family ligand, is expressed by sensory neurons of the PNS and regulates the proliferation and adhesion of hemocytes.

Macrophages and cellular immunity in Drosophila melanogaster.

The invertebrate Drosophila melanogaster has been a powerful model for understanding blood cell development and immunity. Drosophila is a holometabolous insect, which transitions through a series of life stages from embryo, larva and pupa to adulthood. In spite of this, remarkable parallels exist between Drosophila and vertebrate macrophages, both in terms of development and function.

Optix defines a neuroepithelial compartment in the optic lobe of the Drosophila brain.

Background: During early brain development, the organisation of neural progenitors into a neuroepithelial sheet maintains tissue integrity during growth. Neuroepithelial cohesion and patterning is essential for orderly proliferation and neural fate specification. Neuroepithelia are regionalised by the expression of transcription factors and signalling molecules, resulting in the formation of distinct developmental, and ultimately functional, domains.

Drosophila as a model for the two myeloid blood cell systems in vertebrates.

Fish, mice, and humans rely on two coexisting myeloid blood cell systems. One is sustained by hematopoietic progenitor cells, which reside in specialized microenvironments (niches) in hematopoietic organs and give rise to cells of the monocyte lineage. The other system corresponds to the independent lineage of self-renewing tissue macrophages, which colonize organs during embryonic development and are maintained during later life by proliferation in local tissue microenvironments.

Cell-type-specific profiling of gene expression and chromatin binding without cell isolation: assaying RNA Pol II occupancy in neural stem cells.

Cell-type-specific transcriptional profiling often requires the isolation of specific cell types from complex tissues. We have developed "TaDa," a technique that enables cell-specific profiling without cell isolation. TaDa permits genome-wide profiling of DNA- or chromatin-binding proteins without cell sorting, fixation, or affinity purification.

Transcriptome analysis of Drosophila neural stem cells.

In Drosophila, the central nervous system is populated by a set of asymmetrically dividing neural stem cells called neuroblasts. Neuroblasts are derived from epithelial or neuroepithelial precursors, and divide along their apico-basal axes to produce a large apical neuroblast and a smaller basal ganglion mother cell. The ganglion mother cell will divide once again to produce two post-mitotic neurons or glia.

Regulating the balance between symmetric and asymmetric stem cell division in the developing brain.

Stem cells proliferate through symmetric division or self-renew through asymmetric division whilst generating differentiating cell types. The balance between symmetric and asymmetric division requires tight control to either expand a stem cell pool or to generate cell diversity. In the Drosophila optic lobe, symmetrically dividing neuroepithelial cells transform into asymmetrically dividing neuroblasts.

Notch regulates the switch from symmetric to asymmetric neural stem cell division in the Drosophila optic lobe.

The proper balance between symmetric and asymmetric stem cell division is crucial both to maintain a population of stem cells and to prevent tumorous overgrowth. Neural stem cells in the Drosophila optic lobe originate within a polarised neuroepithelium, where they divide symmetrically. Neuroepithelial cells are transformed into asymmetrically dividing neuroblasts in a precisely regulated fashion.

The role of Notch signalling and numb function in mechanosensory organ formation in the spider Cupiennius salei.

In the spider Cupiennius salei the mechanosensory organs of the legs are generated from epithelial sensory precursor groups which are specified by elevated levels of the achaete-scute homologues CsASH1 and CsASH2. Neural precursors delaminate from the groups and occupy positions basal and proximal to the accessory cells which remain in the epithelium. Here we analyse the role of Notch signalling and numb function in the development of the mechanosensory organs of the spider.