ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Stem Cell Research
Divergent functions of the RNA-binding protein, Mei-P26 in germline and somatic lineages of Drosophila testis
Provisionally accepted
- Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, United States
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The Drosophila TRIM-NHL family RNA-binding protein Mei-P26 has been implicated in suppressing tumorigenesis in the female germline. By restricting growth and proliferation while promoting differentiation within the ovarian stem cell lineage, Mei-P26 maintains germline homeostasis. Whether it plays comparable or distinct roles in the testis during spermatogenesis, however, remains unclear. Here we show that overexpression of mei-P26 in germline cells leads to truncated, agametic testes. These testes display germline cell cycle arrest and defective somatic cyst cell proliferation and differentiation, highlighting a failure in germline-soma coordination. By contrast, somatic overexpression of mei-P26 results in male-specific lethality. With the Gal80ts system to circumvent this lethality, induction of mei-P26 in adult somatic cells promoted proliferation and differentiation of both germline and somatic cells, accompanied by upregulation of phospho-S6, indicating hyperactivation of the TOR signaling pathway. Our findings reveal that Mei-P26 exerts opposing, cell type-specific roles within the same tissue, restraining germline development while driving expansion of somatic cells. This study underscores the importance of cell-specific regulation by RNA-binding proteins and provides new insights into how misregulation of Mei-P26 may coordinate divergent cell fates within a shared tissue context-processes frequently disrupted in cancer, developmental disorders, and age-associated tissue decline.
Keywords: Cell Cycle, Mei-P26, RNA-Binding Protein, Spermatogenesis, TOR signaling
Received: 04 Nov 2025; Accepted: 19 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 THANGADURAI, Pak and Murashov. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alexander K. Murashov
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