TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrin-dependent anchoring of a stem-cell niche
AU - Tanentzapf, Guy
AU - Devenport, Danelle
AU - Godt, Dorothea
AU - Brown, Nicholas H.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank S. Baumgartner, L. Cooley, R. Lehmann, J. Raff, R. Basto and the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank (University of Iowa, IA) for antibodies; B. Dickson and F. Schnorrer for RNAi fly stocks, the Drosophila Genomics Resource Center (Kyoto Institute of Technology) for the tj-GAL4 line; T. Clandinin (Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA) and U. Tepass for cadherin fly stocks; and S. Choksi, L. Jones (UCSD, San Diego, CA) and U. Tepass for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant to D.G., Wellcome Trust grants to N.H.B. (69943) and D.D. (72817), a Human Frontiers Science Program Long Term Fellowship and a Development Travelling Fellowship to G.T.
PY - 2007/12
Y1 - 2007/12
N2 - Interactions between stem cells and their surrounding microenvironment, or niche, are critical for the establishment and maintenance of stem-cell properties. The adult Drosophila testis contains a morphologically discrete stem-cell niche, the 'hub'. The small cluster of non-dividing, somatic hub cells at the anterior tip of the fly testis is contacted by the germline stem cells (GSCs), which retain their stem-cell character through the direct association with the hub. Here we show that integrin-mediated adhesion is important for maintaining the correct position of embryonic hub cells during gonad morphogenesis. The misplaced hub in integrin-deficient embryos directs the orientation of cell divisions in the presumptive GSCs, a hallmark of the active germline stem-cell niche. A decrease in integrin-mediated adhesion in adult testes, which resulted in a loss of the hub and the stem-cell population, revealed the importance of hub-cell anchoring. Finally, we show that an extracellular matrix (ECM) is present around the gonad during late embryogenesis and that this ECM is defective in integrin-deficient gonads. On the basis of our data, we propose that integrins are required for the attachment of the hub cells to the ECM, which is essential for maintaining the stem-cell niche.
AB - Interactions between stem cells and their surrounding microenvironment, or niche, are critical for the establishment and maintenance of stem-cell properties. The adult Drosophila testis contains a morphologically discrete stem-cell niche, the 'hub'. The small cluster of non-dividing, somatic hub cells at the anterior tip of the fly testis is contacted by the germline stem cells (GSCs), which retain their stem-cell character through the direct association with the hub. Here we show that integrin-mediated adhesion is important for maintaining the correct position of embryonic hub cells during gonad morphogenesis. The misplaced hub in integrin-deficient embryos directs the orientation of cell divisions in the presumptive GSCs, a hallmark of the active germline stem-cell niche. A decrease in integrin-mediated adhesion in adult testes, which resulted in a loss of the hub and the stem-cell population, revealed the importance of hub-cell anchoring. Finally, we show that an extracellular matrix (ECM) is present around the gonad during late embryogenesis and that this ECM is defective in integrin-deficient gonads. On the basis of our data, we propose that integrins are required for the attachment of the hub cells to the ECM, which is essential for maintaining the stem-cell niche.
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U2 - 10.1038/ncb1660
DO - 10.1038/ncb1660
M3 - Article
C2 - 17982446
AN - SCOPUS:36749083381
SN - 1465-7392
VL - 9
SP - 1413
EP - 1418
JO - Nature cell biology
JF - Nature cell biology
IS - 12
ER -