PgmNr D1083: The role of the endoplasmic reticulum during asymmetric cell division in Drosophila melanogaster.

Authors:
S. A. Beyeler


Institutes
San Francisco State University, San Francisco , CA.


Keyword: organelle maintenance & replication

Abstract:

A crucial step for multicellular organism success is proper asymmetric cell division.  Little is known about how organelles like the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are partitioned during asymmetric cell division.  While we know the ER will divide asymmetrically during asymmetric cell divisions, we don’t know what is regulation this movement.  Drosophila melanogaster offers a great model for asymmetric cell division, in their larval neural stem cell divisions.  Our lab has shown the intermembrane ER protein, jaugunal, will partition to only one daughter cell during asymmetric cell division  in embryonic neural stem cells. As jagunal null mutant flies die in 2nd instar we want to investigate if this death is due in part to improper asymmetric cell division in larval neural stem cells.  This lead to the hypothesis that jagunal is part of a regulation pathway partitioning the ER during asymmetric cell division in larval neural stem cells.  To test this, we used fluorescent immunostaining with confocal microscopy to visualize known cell polarity markers, aPKC (localizes apically) and prospero (localizes basally), to see if they were affected during cell division by a lack of jagunal.  We found that both aPKC and prospero localize properly in the absence of a functional jagunal.  This could mean that jagunal and the ER is acting upstream of cell polarity to affect daughter cell fate.  Future studies will investigate jagunal's role in notch/delta signaling in the larval brain to find a regulation mechanism for ER asymmetry.