Keeping things in proportion: The coordination of organ growth in Drosophila
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1
Michigan State University, Zoology, US Minor Outlying Islands
The developmental mechanisms by which growth is coordinated among developing organs are largely unknown and yet are essential to generate a correctly proportioned adult. In particular, such coordinating mechanisms must be able to accommodate perturbations in the growth of individual organs caused by environmental or developmental stress. By autonomously slowing the growth of the developing wing discs within Drosophila larvae we show that growing organs are able to signal localized growth perturbation to the others organs in the body and slow their growth also. Growth rate is so tightly coordinated among organs that they all show approximately the same reduction in growth rate as the developing wings, thereby maintaining their correct size relationship relative to one another throughout development. Further, we show that the systemic growth effects of localized growth-perturbation are mediated by ecdysone. Application of ecdysone to larvae with growth-perturbed wing discs rescues the growth rate of other organs in the body, indicating that ecdysone is limiting for their growth. Collectively our data demonstrate the existence of a novel growth-coordinating mechanism in Drosophila that synchronizes growth among organs in response to localized growth perturbation.
Acknowledgements
The research was funded by grants from Michigan State University GEDD, and NSF Grant 0845847
References
Parker, N.F. & Shingleton, A.W. 2011. The coordination of growth among Drosophila organs in response to localized growth perturbation. Developmental Biology, in press.
Keywords:
Ecdysone,
Growth coordination,
growth rate,
Imaginal Discs,
organ growth,
Regeneration,
robustness
Conference:
NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology, Ann Arbor, United States, 13 Jul - 16 Jul, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Invited Symposium
Topic:
Developmental endocrinology
Citation:
Parker
NF and
Shingleton
AW
(2011). Keeping things in proportion: The coordination of organ growth in Drosophila.
Front. Endocrinol.
Conference Abstract:
NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2011.04.00077
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Received:
22 Jul 2011;
Published Online:
09 Aug 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Alexander W Shingleton, Michigan State University, Zoology, East Lansing, MI, 48824, US Minor Outlying Islands, ashingle@uic.edu