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Regulation of cellular plasticity in Drosophila imaginal disc cells by the Polycomb group, trithorax group and lama genes

TitleRegulation of cellular plasticity in Drosophila imaginal disc cells by the Polycomb group, trithorax group and lama genes
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2005
AuthorsKlebes A, Sustar A, Kechris K, Li H, Schubiger G, Kornberg TB
JournalDevelopment
Volume132
Issue16
Pagination3753-65 %8 Aug %! Regulation of cellular plasticity in Drosophila imaginal disc cells by the Polycomb group, trithorax group and
Date Published2005
KeywordsGene Expression Profiling, DNA-Binding Proteins, Animals, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Embryonic Structures, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Transcription Factors, In Situ Hybridization, Multigene Family, Morphogenesis, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Systems Theory
Abstract

Drosophila imaginal disc cells can switch fates by transdetermining from one determined state to another. We analyzed the expression profiles of cells induced by ectopic Wingless expression to transdetermine from leg to wing by dissecting transdetermined cells and hybridizing probes generated by linear RNA amplification to DNA microarrays. Changes in expression levels implicated a number of genes: lamina ancestor, CG12534 (a gene orthologous to mouse augmenter of liver regeneration), Notch pathway members, and the Polycomb and trithorax groups of chromatin regulators. Functional tests revealed that transdetermination was significantly affected in mutants for lama and seven different PcG and trxG genes. These results validate our methods for expression profiling as a way to analyze developmental programs, and show that modifications to chromatin structure are key to changes in cell fate. Our findings are likely to be relevant to the mechanisms that lead to disease when homologs of Wingless are expressed at abnormal levels and to the manifestation of pluripotency of stem cells. %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dop... %+ Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. %G eng