PgmNr D1111: Prominin-like, a homology of mammalian CD133, regulates body size by affecting dilps and inhibiting TOR pathway in Drosophila.

Authors:
H. Zheng 1 ; X. Wang 1 ; P. Guo 1 ; Y. Zhang 2 ; W. Ge 1 ; Y. Xi 1 ; X. Yang 1


Institutes
1) ZheJiang University, HangZhou, CN; 2) Beijing Genomics Institute,ShangHai,CN.


Keyword: TOR

Abstract:

CD133, a pentaspan membrane glycoprotein, is extensively used as a surface marker to identify and isolate stem-like cells. However, the molecular and biological functions of CD133 are not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that the Drosophila Prominin-like, a homology of mammalian CD133, regulates body size. We find that Prominin-like expression levels are regulated by ecdysone signaling and increase dramatically in the fat body during metarmorphsis. Interestingly, the prominin-like mutants exhibit bigger body size and excess body weight accompanied with higher fat deposits. Varied dilps transcriptional levels and up-regulated TOR are observed in the mutants. Whilst, overexpressing Prominin-like in insulin-producing cells (IPCs) induces a smaller body size. Taken together, these findings reveal that Prominin-like controls fly body size through affecting dilps and inhibiting TOR pathway, which may suggesting a novel function of CD133 on metabolism in cancer stem cells (CSCs) and cancers.