Temporal regulation of immune cells production in Drosophila melanogaster during development and infection

LUCÍA DURRIEU; DALMIRO BLANCO-OBREGÓN; MAXIMILIANO KATZ; PABLO WAPPNER

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2017

SAIB

In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster hematopoiesis takes place in the lymph gland, which proliferates and differentiates throughout the larval period. The production of mature hemocytes needs to be temporally coordinated to adjust to developmental times and to respond to stimuli such as infection. The balance between self-renewal and differentiation of the progenitor cells is critical for these responses and its affected in diseases including leukemia. It has been shown previously that a peak of the steroid hormone from the Beta-retinoic acid family Ecdysone promotes hemocytes production at three successive steps: proliferation, liberation and activation. Here we study the regulation of hemocytes production at the level of differentiation of the progenitor cells in the lymph gland. We propose that Ecdysone plays a role in maintaining tissue homeostasis and triggers cell differentiation both in the context of development and infection.