Drosophila Src regulates anisotropic apical surface growth to control epithelial tube size.

Networks of epithelial and endothelial tubes are essential for the function of organs such as the lung, kidney and vascular system. The sizes and shapes of these tubes are highly regulated to match their individual functions. Defects in tube size can cause debilitating diseases such as polycystic kidney disease and ischaemia. It is therefore critical to understand how tube dimensions are regulated. Here we identify the tyrosine kinase Src as an instructive regulator of epithelial-tube length in the Drosophila tracheal system. Loss-of-function Src42 mutations shorten tracheal tubes, whereas Src42 overexpression elongates them. Surprisingly, Src42 acts distinctly from known tube-size pathways and regulates both the amount of apical surface growth and, with the conserved formin dDaam, the direction of growth. Quantitative three-dimensional image analysis reveals that Src42- and dDaam-mutant tracheal cells expand more in the circumferential than the axial dimension, resulting in tubes that are shorter in length-but larger in diameter-than wild-type tubes. Thus, Src42 and dDaam control tube dimensions by regulating the direction of anisotropic growth, a mechanism that has not previously been described.

The single Drosophila ZO-1 protein Polychaetoid regulates embryonic morphogenesis in coordination with Canoe/afadin and Enabled.

Adherens and tight junctions play key roles in assembling epithelia and maintaining barriers. In cell culture zonula occludens (ZO)-family proteins are important for assembly/maturation of both tight and adherens junctions (AJs). Genetic studies suggest that ZO proteins are important during normal development, but interpretation of mouse and fly studies is limited by genetic redundancy and/or a lack of null alleles. We generated null alleles of the single Drosophila ZO protein Polychaetoid (Pyd). Most embryos lacking Pyd die with striking defects in morphogenesis of embryonic epithelia including the epidermis, segmental grooves, and tracheal system. Pyd loss does not dramatically affect AJ protein localization or initial localization of actin and myosin during dorsal closure. However, Pyd loss does affect several cell behaviors that drive dorsal closure. The defects, which include segmental grooves that fail to retract, a disrupted leading edge actin cable, and reduced zippering as leading edges meet, closely resemble defects in canoe zygotic null mutants and in embryos lacking the actin regulator Enabled (Ena), suggesting that these proteins act together. Canoe (Cno) and Pyd are required for proper Ena localization during dorsal closure, and strong genetic interactions suggest that Cno, Pyd, and Ena act together in regulating or anchoring the actin cytoskeleton during dorsal closure.

The Drosophila Claudin Kune-kune is required for septate junction organization and tracheal tube size control.

The vertebrate tight junction is a critical claudin-based cell-cell junction that functions to prevent free paracellular diffusion between epithelial cells. In Drosophila, this barrier is provided by the septate junction, which, despite being ultrastructurally distinct from the vertebrate tight junction, also contains the claudin-family proteins Megatrachea and Sinuous. Here we identify a third Drosophila claudin, Kune-kune, that localizes to septate junctions and is required for junction organization and paracellular barrier function, but not for apical-basal polarity. In the tracheal system, septate junctions have a barrier-independent function that promotes lumenal secretion of Vermiform and Serpentine, extracellular matrix modifier proteins that are required to restrict tube length. As with Sinuous and Megatrachea, loss of Kune-kune prevents this secretion and results in overly elongated tubes. Embryos lacking all three characterized claudins have tracheal phenotypes similar to any single mutant, indicating that these claudins act in the same pathway controlling tracheal tube length. However, we find that there are distinct requirements for these claudins in epithelial septate junction formation. Megatrachea is predominantly required for correct localization of septate junction components, while Sinuous is predominantly required for maintaining normal levels of septate junction proteins. Kune-kune is required for both localization and levels. Double- and triple-mutant combinations of Sinuous and Megatrachea with Kune-kune resemble the Kune-kune single mutant, suggesting that Kune-kune has a more central role in septate junction formation than either Sinuous or Megatrachea.

More than a pipe dream: uncovering mechanisms of vascular lumen formation.

An unresolved question in vasculogenesis is how mammalian endothelial cells make lumens in developing vessels. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Strilic et al. present a comprehensive analysis of murine arterial lumen formation that defines cellular and molecular events required for lumen morphogenesis and argues against a previous paradigm of lumen formation.

Cell junctions: lessons from a broken heart.

In a case of the familiar being strange, new work shows that the integrity of the Drosophila cardiac system depends on septate-junction proteins even though the heart lacks discernable septate junctions.

Drosophila convoluted/dALS is an essential gene required for tracheal tube morphogenesis and apical matrix organization.

Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) control cell and organism growth through evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways. The mammalian acid-labile subunit (ALS) is a secreted protein that complexes with IGFs to modulate their activity. Recent work has shown that a Drosophila homolog of ALS, dALS, can also complex with and modulate the activity of a Drosophila IGF. Here we report the first mutations in the gene encoding dALS. Unexpectedly, we find that these mutations are allelic to a previously described mutation in convoluted (conv), a gene required for epithelial morphogenesis. In conv mutants, the tubes of the Drosophila tracheal system become abnormally elongated without altering tracheal cell number. conv null mutations cause larval lethality, but do not disrupt several processes required for tracheal tube size control, including septate junction formation, deposition of a lumenal/apical extracellular matrix, and lumenal secretion of Vermiform and Serpentine, two putative matrix-modifying proteins. Clearance of lumenal matrix and subcellular localization of clathrin also appear normal in conv mutants. However, we show that Conv/dALS is required for the dynamic organization of the transient lumenal matrix and normal structure of the cuticle that lines the tracheal lumen. These and other data suggest that the Conv/dALS-dependent tube size control mechanism is distinct from other known processes involved in tracheal tube size regulation. Moreover, we present evidence indicating that Conv/dALS has a novel, IGF-signaling independent function in tracheal morphogenesis.