The cell-surface proteoglycan Dally regulates Wingless signalling in Drosophila.

Wingless (Wg) is a member of the Wnt family of growth factors, secreted proteins that control proliferation and differentiation during development. Studies in Drosophila have shown that responses to Wg require cell-surface heparan sulphate, a glycosaminoglycan component of proteoglycans. These findings suggest that a cell-surface proteoglycan is a component of a Wg/Wnt receptor complex. We demonstrate here that the protein encoded by the division abnormally delayed (dally) gene is a cell-surface, heparan-sulphate-modified proteoglycan. dally partial loss-of-function mutations compromise Wg-directed events, and disruption of dally function with RNA interference produces phenotypes comparable to those found with RNA interference of wg or frizzled (fz)/Dfz2. Ectopic expression of Dally potentiates Wg signalling without altering levels of Wg and can rescue a wg partial loss-of-function mutant. We also show that dally, a regulator of Decapentaplegic (Dpp) signalling during post-embryonic development, has tissue-specific effects on Wg and Dpp signalling. Dally can therefore differentially influence signalling mediated by two growth factors, and may form a regulatory component of both Wg and Dpp receptor complexes.

Blood island formation in attached cultures of murine embryonic stem cells.

Differentiation of murine embryonic stem cells in suspension culture results in the formation of cystic embryoid bodies that develop blood islands. In this study pre-cystic embryoid bodies were attached to a substratum, and the program of differentiation was monitored. The attached ES cell cultures formed blood islands on a cell layer that migrated out from the center of attachment and beneath a mesothelial-like cell layer. Morphological and in situ marker analysis showed benzidine-positive hematopoietic cells surrounded by vascular endothelial cells that expressed PECAM and took up DiI-Ac-LDL. Waves of morphological differentiation were evident, suggesting a graded response to differentiation signals. Electron microscopy of the blood islands showed that they were similar to blood islands of cystic embryoid bodies and mouse yolk sacs, and cell-cell junctions were evident among the blood island cells. RNA expression analysis was consistent with the presence of hematopoietic precursor cells of several lineages and a primitive vascular endothelium in the cultures. Thus a program of vascular and hematopoietic development can be elaborated in attached ES cell cultures, and these blood islands are accessible to experimental manipulation.

The division abnormally delayed (dally) gene: a putative integral membrane proteoglycan required for cell division patterning during postembryonic development of the nervous system in Drosophila.

We have devised a genetic screen to obtain mutants affecting cell division patterning in the developing central nervous system of Drosophila. The division abnormally delayed (dally) locus was identified using a combination of "enhancer trap" and behavioral screening methods. The ordered cell cycle progression of lamina precursor cells, which generate synaptic target neurons for photoreceptors, is disrupted in dally mutants. The first of two lamina precursor cell divisions shows a delayed entry into mitosis. The second division, one that is triggered by an intercellular signal from photoreceptor axons, fails to take place. Similar to lamina precursors, cells that generate the ommatidia of the adult eye show two synchronized divisions found along the morphogenetic furrow in the eye disc and the first division cycle in dally mutants displays a delayed progression into M phase like that found in the first lamina precursor cell division. dally mutations also affect viability and produce morphological defects in several adult tissues, including the eye, antenna, wing and genitalia. Sequencing of a dally cDNA reveals a potential open reading frame of 626 amino acids with homology to a family of Glypican-related integral membrane proteoglycans. These heparan sulfate-containing proteins are attached to the external leaflet of the plasma membrane via a glycosylphosphatidylinositol linkage. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans may serve as co-receptors for a variety of secreted proteins including fibroblast growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor and members of the Wnt, TGF-beta and Hedgehog families. The cell division defects found in dally mutants implicate the Glypican group of integral membrane proteoglycans in the control of cell division during development.

Association of gylcogenolysis with cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum.

Sarcoplasmic reticulum fragments isolated from dog cardiac muscle possess a calcium-accumulating system associated with a series of enzymes linked to glycogenolysis. These enzymes include: adenylate cyclase, cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase, phosphorylase b kinase, phosphorylase (b/a, 30/1),"debrancher" enzyme, and glycogen (0.3 to 0.7 mg/mg of protein). The sarcoplasmic reticulum preparation produced glucose 1-phosphate and glucose from either endogenous or exogenous glycogen. Both the calcium-accumulating and glycogenolytic enzymes sediment in a single peak at 33% sucrose on a linear continous sucrose density gradient, and the complex remains intact throughout repeated washing. Glycogen particles appear to be associated with the sarcoplasmic reticulum in situ as well as in the isolated microsomal fraction. The sarcoplasmic reticulum-glycogenolytic complex, monitored by a linked enzyme spectrophotometric assay, shows several features: (a) activation of phosphorylase activity to peak rate occurs over a very rapid time course which cannot be duplicated using combinations of purified enzymes; (b) activation is inhibited by protein kinase inhibitor; (c) phosphorylase b functions as in the purified form with respect to AMP (Km, 0.3 mM); (d) in the presence of limiting amounts of glycogen, optimal phosphorylase b activity in the sarcoplasmic reticulum requires the presence of debrancher, and the activity is sensitive to inhibitors of that enzyme such as Tris, which suggests the possiblity that the enzymes bear a specific structual relationship to the glycogen present. Phosphorylase b leads to a activation in the sarcoplasmic reticulum was completely resistant to ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl either)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA). Inhibition of calcium accumulation by or release of bound calcium from sarcoplasmic reticulum by X537A (RO 2-2985) did not alter the EGTA resistance. These results suggest that cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum is a complex organelle containing functions that may be related to excitation-contraction coupling and intermediary metabolism.