TY  - GEN
T1  - Studies of Myc super-competition and clonal growth in Drosophila males and females
AU  - Svoysky, Abigail J
AU  - Bellah, Jeffrey L
AU  - Johnston, Laura A
DO  - 10.17912/micropub.biology.000502
UR  - http://beta.micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-000502/
AB  - Cell competition is a cell selection process that arises in growing tissues as a result of interactions between cells of different fitness (Simpson, 1979). A well documented example of this behavior is Myc super-competition, where healthy wild type (WT) cells in the growing wing discs (adult wing primordia) of Drosophila larvae are outcompeted by nearby cells that express higher levels of the growth factor Myc (de la Cova et al. 2004; Moreno and Basler, 2004). Short-range signaling interactions between the cell populations cause the WT cells, termed “losers”, to be eliminated via apoptosis, allowing the Myc-expressing cells to colonize the tissue (de la Cova et al. 2004; Senoo-Matsuda and Johnston, 2007; Meyer et al. 2014; Alpar et al. 2018). Most of the existing work on cell competition has examined it in mixed larval populations of males and females without accounting for sex differences. However, physiological and genetic differences between Drosophila males and females could affect the behavior of cells during cell competition. We have investigated cell competition in separated male and female larvae, using Flp recombinase-mediated excision of a gene cassette expressing the transcription factor Myc (>myc>Gal4; competitive context) or the cell marker CD2 (>CD2>Gal4; non-competitive context) to generate loser and control clones, respectively. A short heat shock induces the Flp recombinase, which stochastically excises the myc or CD2 gene cassette from a few cells in the developing wing disc. Each excision event is heritable and generates a clone marked by the expression of GFP under Gal4 control (Fig. 1A). Excision of the >myc> cassette yields a cell and its progeny that lack the extra myc, but still express endogenous myc; however, this clone is surrounded by fitter cells that still have the >myc> cassette. Thus, the GFP-positive clonal cells become “losers”, while the surrounding cells with the >myc> cassette become “winners”. Excision of the >CD2> cassette serves as a control because its loss has no measurable effect on cell fitness (de la Cova et al. 2004). After a defined growth period, loser clone size is compared to control clone size generated in parallel in the non-competitive context. Competitive loser-winner interactions lead to death of loser cells, thereby reducing loser clone size (de la Cova et al. 2004; Meyer et al. 2014; Alpar et al. 2018).
PY  - 2021
JO  - microPublication Biology
ER  -