Variant cell cycles regulated by Notch signaling control cell size and ensure a functional blood-brain barrier.

Regulation of cell size is crucial in development. In plants and animals two cell cycle variants are employed to generate large cells by increased ploidy: the endocycle and endomitosis. The rationale behind the choice of which of these cycles is implemented is unknown.

Centromere proteins CENP-C and CAL1 functionally interact in meiosis for centromere clustering, pairing, and chromosome segregation.

Meiotic chromosome segregation involves pairing and segregation of homologous chromosomes in the first division and segregation of sister chromatids in the second division. Although it is known that the centromere and kinetochore are responsible for chromosome movement in meiosis as in mitosis, potential specialized meiotic functions are being uncovered. Centromere pairing early in meiosis I, even between nonhomologous chromosomes, and clustering of centromeres can promote proper homolog associations in meiosis I in yeast, plants, and Drosophila.

Drosophila embryonic cell-cycle mutants.

Nearly all cell division mutants in Drosophila were recovered in late larval/pupal lethal screens, with less than 10 embryonic lethal mutants identified, because larval development occurs without a requirement for cell division. Only cells in the nervous system and the imaginal cells that generate the adult body divide during larval stages, with larval tissues growing by increasing ploidy rather than cell number. Thus, most mutants perturbing mitosis or the cell cycle do not manifest a phenotype until the adult body differentiates in late larval and pupal stages.

Polyploidization of glia in neural development links tissue growth to blood-brain barrier integrity.

Proper development requires coordination in growth of the cell types composing an organ. Many plant and animal cells are polyploid, but how these polyploid tissues contribute to organ growth is not well understood. We found the Drosophila melanogaster subperineurial glia (SPG) to be polyploid, and ploidy is coordinated with brain mass.

MILI, a PIWI-interacting RNA-binding protein, is required for germ line stem cell self-renewal and appears to positively regulate translation.

The Argonaute/PIWI protein family consists of Argonaute and PIWI subfamilies. Argonautes function in RNA interference and micro-RNA pathways; whereas PIWIs bind to PIWI-interacting RNAs and regulate germ line development, stem cell maintenance, epigenetic regulation, and transposition. However, the role of PIWIs in mammalian stem cells has not been demonstrated, and molecular mechanisms mediated by PIWIs remain elusive.

MEP-1 and a homolog of the NURD complex component Mi-2 act together to maintain germline-soma distinctions in C. elegans.

A rapid cascade of regulatory events defines the developmental fates of embryonic cells. However, once established, these developmental fates and the underlying transcriptional programs can be remarkably stable. Here, we describe two proteins, MEP-1 and LET-418/Mi-2, required for maintenance of somatic differentiation in C.