Control of Growth Within Drosophila Peripheral Nerves by Ras and Protein Kinase A
Abstract
The long term goals of this research are to understand the mechanisms by which NF1 and its partners control growth using the Drosophila peripheral nerve as our assay system. This system is advantageous because we can apply a number of powerful molecular genetic methodologies that are not available in other systems. This project addresses four specific aspects of growth control, two of which were begun during the first twelve months of funding, and the third was begun during this funding year. Our major findings continue to be generated from aim #4. This year we found that co-overexpression of PI3KCAAX and Akt within peripheral glia conferred a striking increase in peripheral glial thickness compared with overexpression of each transgene individually. We also found that overexpression of the transcription factor FOXO within peripheral glia strongly suppressed the growth promoting effects of PI3KCAAX. This result suggests that PI3K activates peripheral glial growth by inhibiting FOXO. Finally, we found that the increase in peripheral glial nuclei number conferred nonautonomously by RasV12 is mediated by both PI3K and Raf. This result suggests that peripheral glial cell growth can be genetically uncoupled from peripheral glial cell number.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA453284
Entities
People
- Michael Stern
Organizations
- Rice University