FAK Acts as a Suppressor of RTK-MAP Kinase Signalling in Drosophila melanogaster Epithelia and Human Cancer Cells
Figure 5
High relative levels between RET and FAK induce ectopic cone cell differentiation in the eye.
We examined the cellular patterning of the pupal retinas in correspondence to the adult eye phenotypes shown in panels A–D. Scale bars, 100 µm. (E–H) Merged images of stainings for nuclei (DAPI, blue), Dlg (cell outlines, red) and Cut (cone cells, green), from retinas at 42 h APF. Bottom panels show Dlg (E′–H′) and Cut (E″–H″) immunostainings individually. (E) Note the symmetric hexagonal array, and four Cut+ cone cells per ommatidium (white arrows) in control retinas. (F and G) Note the change in cellular composition of these retinas with high RET/FAK ratios, primarily composed of Cut+ cone-like cells. (H) dFAK expression within a 2X GMR-dRETCA background suppressed this phenotype (also see S1D); some normal four-cone cell clusters (white arrows) can be identified and interommatidial cells reappeared (yellow arrows). Scale bars, 10 µm.