Bedraggled, a putative transporter, influences the tissue polarity complex during the R3/R4 fate decision in the Drosophila eye.

The tissue polarity pathway is required for the establishment of epithelial polarity in a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate organs. Core tissue polarity proteins act in a dynamically regulated complex to direct the polarization of the Drosophila eye. We report the identification and characterization of bedraggled (bdg), a novel gene that regulates one output of the tissue polarity pathway--the establishment of the R3/R4 photoreceptor fates. bdg encodes a novel, putative transporter protein and interacts genetically with all of the core polarity genes to influence the specification of the R3 and R4 cell fates. Finally, bdg is required for both viability and the initial stages of imaginal disc development.

Lentiviral-mediated RNAi inhibition of Sbds in murine hematopoietic progenitors impairs their hematopoietic potential.

Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a rare multisystem disorder characterized by exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, multilineage hematopoietic dysfunction, and metaphyseal chondrodysplasia. Bone marrow dysfunction is present in nearly all patients with SDS, with neutropenia being the most common abnormality. The majority of patients with SDS have mutations in the Shwachman Bodian Diamond syndrome (SBDS) gene. We have developed a strategy to examine the consequences of lentiviral-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) of Sbds on hematopoiesis. Here, we report that both Sbds RNA and protein expression can be efficiently inhibited in primary murine hematopoietic cells using lentiviral-mediated RNAi. Inhibition of Sbds results in a defect in granulocytic differentiation in vitro and impairs myeloid progenitor generation in vivo. In addition, short-term hematopoietic engraftment was impaired, which is due in part to reduced homing of hematopoietic progenitors to the bone marrow. Finally, we show that inhibition of Sbds is associated with a decrease in circulating B lymphocytes, despite evidence of normal B lymphopoiesis. These data provide the first evidence that loss of Sbds is sufficient to induce abnormalities in hematopoiesis.

Screen for genetic modifiers of stbm reveals that photoreceptor fate and rotation can be genetically uncoupled in the Drosophila eye.

BACKGROUND: Polarity of the Drosophila compound eye arises primarily as a consequence of two events that are tightly linked in time and space: fate specification of two photoreceptor cells, R3 and R4, and the subsequent directional movement of the unit eyes of the compound eye, or ommatidia. While it is thought that these fates dictate the direction of ommatidial rotation, the phenotype of mutants in the genes that set up this polarity led to the hypothesis that these two events could be uncoupled. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To definitively demonstrate these events are genetically separable, we conducted a dominant modifier screen to determine if genes, when misexpressed, could selectively enhance subclasses of mutant ommatidia in which the direction of rotation does not follow the R3/R4 cell fates, yet not affect the number of ommatidia in which rotation follows the R3/R4 cell fates. We identified a subset of P element lines that exhibit this selective enhancement. We also identified lines that behave in the opposite manner: They enhance the number of ommatidia that rotate in the right direction, but do not alter the number of ommatidia that rotate incorrectly with respect to the R3/R4 fates. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results indicate that fate and direction of rotation can be genetically separated, and that there are genes that act between R3/R4 fate specification and direction of ommatidial rotation. These data affirm what has been a long-standing assumption about the genetic control of ommatidial polarity.

Mutations of the SBDS gene are present in most patients with Shwachman-Diamond syndrome.

Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (SDS) is a rare multisystem disorder characterized by exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, bone marrow dysfunction, and metaphyseal chondrodysplasia. Recent studies show that mutations of SBDS, a gene of unknown function, are present in the majority of patients with SDS. In the present study, we show that most, but not all, patients classified based on rigorous clinical criteria as having SDS had compound heterozygous mutations of SBDS. Full-length SBDS protein was not detected in leukocytes of SDS patients with the most common SBDS mutations, consistent with a loss-of-function mechanism. In contrast, SBDS protein was expressed at normal levels in SDS patients without SBDS mutations. These data confirm the absence of SBDS mutations in this subgroup of patients and suggest that SDS is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. The presence (or absence) of SBDS mutations may define subgroups of patients with SDS who share distinct clinical features or natural history.

Strabismus requires Flamingo and Prickle function to regulate tissue polarity in the Drosophila eye.

Tissue polarity in Drosophila is regulated by a number of genes that are thought to function in a complex, many of which interact genetically and/or physically, co-localize, and require other tissue polarity proteins for their localization. We report the enhancement of the strabismus tissue polarity phenotype by mutations in two other tissue polarity genes, flamingo and prickle. Flamingo is autonomously required for the establishment of ommatidial polarity. Its localization is dynamic throughout ommatidial development and is dependent on Frizzled and Notch. Flamingo and Strabismus co-localize for several rows posterior to the morphogenetic furrow and subsequently diverge. While neither of these proteins is required for the other's localization, Prickle localization is influenced by Strabismus function. Our data suggest that Strabismus, Flamingo and Prickle function together to regulate the establishment of tissue polarity in the Drosophila eye.

The cadherins fat and dachsous regulate dorsal/ventral signaling in the Drosophila eye.

The Drosophila eye is a polarized epithelium in which ommatidia of opposing chirality fall on opposite sides of the eye's midline, the equator. The equator is established in at least two steps: photoreceptors R3 and R4 adopt their fates, and then ommatidia rotate clockwise or counterclockwise in accordance with the identity of these photoreceptors. We report the role of two cadherins, Fat (Ft) and Dachsous (Ds), in conveying the polarizing signal from the D/V midline in the Drosophila eye. In eyes lacking Ft, the midline is abolished. In ft and ds mutant clones, wild-type tissue rescues genetically mutant tissue at the clonal borders, giving rise to ectopic equators. These ectopic equators distort a mosaic analysis of these genes and led to the possible misinterpretation that ft and ds are required to specify the R3 and R4 cell fates, respectively. Our interpretation of these data supports a significantly different model in which ft and ds are not necessarily required for fate determination. Rather, they are involved in long-range signaling during the formation of the equator, as defined by the presence of an organized arrangement of dorsal and ventral chiral ommatidial forms.