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Wingless promotes cell survival but constrains growth during Drosophila wing development

Nature Cell Biology volume 5, pages 827–833 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

During animal development, organs grow to a fixed size and shape. Organ development typically begins with a rapid growth phase followed by a gradual decline in growth rate as the organ matures1, but the regulation of either stage of growth remains unclear. The Wnt/Wingless (Wg) proteins are critical for patterning most animal organs, have diverse effects on development and have been proposed to promote organ growth2. Here we report that contrary to this view, Wg activity actually constrains wing growth during Drosophila melanogaster wing development. In addition, we demonstrate that Wg is required for wing cell survival, particularly during the rapid growth phase of wing development. We propose that the cell-survival- and growth-constraining activities of Wg function to sculpt and delimit final wing size as part of its overall patterning programme.

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Figure 1: Strategy for analysing growth during wing development.
Figure 2: Wing pouch cells deprived of Wg die at high frequency.
Figure 3: Altering Wg activity disrupts the growth profile.
Figure 4: Loss or gain of Wg alters cell cycle phasing.

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Acknowledgements

L.A.J. very gratefully acknowledges the continual encouragement and generous support of Bruce Edgar, in whose lab this work was started. We thank K. Shah, E. Yoshida and L. Gatto for technical assistance, T. Jessel and I. Schieren for FACS use and assistance, and B. Edgar, I. Greenwald, T. Jessel, R. Mann, G. Struhl, A. Tomlinson, and members of the Johnston lab for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the V Foundation for Cancer Research, NY Speaker's Fund for Biomedical Sciences (L.A.J.) and the National Institutes of Health (HD42770 to L.A.J, GM51186 to B. Edgar). L.A.J. is a V Foundation Scholar.

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  1. Department of Genetics & Development, College of Physicians & Surgeons Columbia University, 701 West 168th Street, New York, 10032, NY, USA

    Laura A. Johnston & Angela L. Sanders

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  1. Laura A. Johnston
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  2. Angela L. Sanders
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Correspondence to Laura A. Johnston.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Johnston, L., Sanders, A. Wingless promotes cell survival but constrains growth during Drosophila wing development. Nat Cell Biol 5, 827–833 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1041

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