Autophagy, not apoptosis, is essential for midgut cell death in Drosophila

Autophagy can promote but is not required for epithelial cell extrusion in the amnioserosa of the Drosophila embryo

During Drosophila embryogenesis the majority of the extra-embryonic epithelium known as the amnioserosa (AS) undergoes programmed cell death (PCD) following the completion of the morphogenetic process of dorsal closure. Approximately ten percent of AS cells, however, are eliminated during dorsal closure by extrusion from the epithelium. Using biosensors that report autophagy and caspase activity in vivo, we demonstrate that AS cell extrusion occurs in the context of elevated autophagy and caspase activation. Furthermore, we evaluate AS extrusion rates, autophagy, and caspase activation in embryos in which caspase activity or autophagy are altered by genetic manipulation. This includes using the GAL4/UAS system to drive expression of p35, reaper, dINR (ACT) and Atg1 in the AS; we also analyze embryos lacking both maternal and zygotic expression of Atg1. Based on our results we suggest that autophagy can promote, but is not required for, epithelial extrusion and caspase activation in the amnioserosa.

Programmed cell death in animal development and disease

Programmed cell death (PCD) plays a fundamental role in animal development and tissue homeostasis. Abnormal regulation of this process is associated with a wide variety of human diseases, including immunological and developmental disorders, neurodegeneration, and cancer. Here, we provide a brief historical overview of the field and reflect on the regulation, roles, and modes of PCD during animal development. We also discuss the function and regulation of apoptotic proteins, including caspases, the key executioners of apoptosis, and review the nonlethal functions of these proteins in diverse developmental processes, such as cell differentiation and tissue remodeling. Finally, we explore a growing body of work about the connections between apoptosis, stem cells, and cancer, focusing on how apoptotic cells release a variety of signals to communicate with their cellular environment, including factors that promote cell division, tissue regeneration, and wound healing.

Role of the insulin/Tor signaling network in starvation-induced programmed cell death in Drosophila oogenesis

Amino-acid starvation leads to an inhibition of cellular proliferation and the induction of programmed cell death (PCD) in the Drosophila ovary. Disruption of insulin signaling has been shown to inhibit the progression of oogenesis, but it is unclear whether this phenotype mimics starvation. Here, we investigate whether the insulin-mediated phosphoinositide kinase-3 pathway regulates PCD in mid oogenesis. We reasoned that under well-fed conditions, disruption of positive components of the insulin signaling pathway within the germline would mimic starvation and produce degenerating egg chambers. Surprisingly, mutants did not mimic starvation but instead produced many abnormal egg chambers in which the somatic follicle cells disappeared and the germline persisted. These abnormal egg chambers did not show an induction of caspases and lysosomes like that observed in wild-type (WT) degenerating egg chambers. Egg chambers from insulin signaling mutants were resistant to starvation-induced PCD, indicating that a complete block in insulin-signaling prevents the proper response to starvation. However, target of rapamycin (Tor) mutants did show a phenotype that mimicked WT starvation-induced PCD, indicating an insulin independent regulation of PCD via Tor signaling. These results suggest that inhibition of the insulin signaling pathway is not sufficient to regulate starvation-induced PCD in mid oogenesis. Furthermore, starvation-induced PCD is regulated by Tor signaling converging with the canonical insulin signaling pathway.

Molecular definitions of cell death subroutines: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2012

In 2009, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) proposed a set of recommendations for the definition of distinct cell death morphologies and for the appropriate use of cell death-related terminology, including 'apoptosis', 'necrosis' and 'mitotic catastrophe'. In view of the substantial progress in the biochemical and genetic exploration of cell death, time has come to switch from morphological to molecular definitions of cell death modalities. Here we propose a functional classification of cell death subroutines that applies to both in vitro and in vivo settings and includes extrinsic apoptosis, caspase-dependent or -independent intrinsic apoptosis, regulated necrosis, autophagic cell death and mitotic catastrophe. Moreover, we discuss the utility of expressions indicating additional cell death modalities. On the basis of the new, revised NCCD classification, cell death subroutines are defined by a series of precise, measurable biochemical features.

Absence of the Cdk5 activator p35 causes adult-onset neurodegeneration in the central brain of Drosophila

Altered function of Cdk5 kinase is associated with many forms of neurodegenerative disease in humans. We show here that inactivating the Drosophila Cdk5 ortholog, by mutation of its activating subunit, p35, causes adult-onset neurodegeneration in the fly. In the mutants, a vacuolar neuropathology is observed in a specific structure of the central brain, the 'mushroom body', which is the seat of olfactory learning and memory. Analysis of cellular phenotypes in the mutant brains reveals some phenotypes that resemble natural aging in control flies, including an increase in apoptotic and necrotic cell death, axonal fragmentation, and accumulation of autophagosomes packed with crystalline-like depositions. Other phenotypes are unique to the mutants, notably age-dependent swellings of the proximal axon of mushroom body neurons. Many of these phenotypes are also characteristic of mammalian neurodegenerative disease, suggesting a close relationship between the mechanisms of Cdk5-associated neurodegeneration in fly and human. Together, these results identify the cellular processes that are unleashed in the absence of Cdk5 to initiate the neurodegenerative program, and they provide a model that can be used to determine what part each process plays in the progression to ultimate degeneration.

The steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone upregulated the protein phosphatase 6 for the programmed cell death in the insect midgut

Programmed cell death (PCD) plays an important role in insect midgut remodeling during metamorphosis. Insect midgut PCD is triggered by the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and it is mediated by a series of genes. However, the mechanism by which 20E triggers midgut PCD is still unclear. Here, we report a protein phosphatase 6 (PP6) from Helicoverpa armigera playing roles in midgut PCD. PP6 was expressed in the midgut during larval growth and it is significantly increased during metamorphosis. The increase was proven to be regulated by 20E. The juvenile hormone analog methoprene has no effect on PP6 expression. RNA interference analysis suggests that 20E upregulated the PP6 transcript levels through the ecdysone receptor EcRB1. PP6 knockdown by larval feeding or PP6 dsRNA injection resulted in the repression of the midgut PCD during the metamorphic stage. The mechanism was demonstrated to be through the suppression of genes such as Broad (Br), E74a, E75b, HR3, E93, rpr, and caspase, which are involved in 20E signaling pathway or midgut PCD. These findings suggest that PP6 is involved in the 20E signal transduction pathway and participates in the PCD in midgut.

Autophagy and disease: always two sides to a problem

Autophagy is a process traditionally known to contribute to cellular cleaning through the removal of intracellular components in lysosomes. In recent years, intensive scrutiny at the molecular level to which autophagy has been subjected has also contributed to expanding our understanding of the physiological role of this pathway. Added to the well-characterized role in quality control, autophagy has proved to be important in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and of the energetic balance, in cellular and tissue remodelling, and cellular defence against extracellular insults and pathogens. It is not a surprise that, in light of this growing number of physiological functions, connections between autophagic malfunction and human pathologies have also been strengthened. In this review, we focus on several pathological conditions associated with primary or secondary defects in autophagy and comment on a recurring theme for many of them, ie the fact that autophagy can often exert both beneficial and aggravating effects on the progression of disease. Elucidating the factors that determine the switch between these dual functions of autophagy in disease has become a priority when considering the potential therapeutic implications of the pharmacological modulation of autophagy in many of these pathological conditions.

Programmed autophagy in the fat body of Aedes aegypti is required to maintain egg maturation cycles

Autophagy plays a pivotal role by allowing cells to recycle cellular components under conditions of stress, starvation, development and cancer. In this work, we have demonstrated that programmed autophagy in the mosquito fat body plays a critical role in maintaining of developmental switches required for normal progression of gonadotrophic cycles. Mosquitoes must feed on vertebrate blood for their egg development, with each gonadotrophic cycle being tightly coupled to a separate blood meal. As a consequence, some mosquito species are vectors of pathogens that cause devastating diseases in humans and domestic animals, most importantly malaria and Dengue fever. Hence, deciphering mechanisms to control egg developmental cycles is of paramount importance for devising novel approaches for mosquito control. Central to egg development is vitellogenesis, the production of yolk protein precursors in the fat body, the tissue analogous to a vertebrate liver, and their subsequent specific accumulation in developing oocytes. During each egg developmental cycle, the fat body undergoes a developmental program that includes previtellogenic build-up of biosynthetic machinery, intense production of yolk protein precursors, and termination of vitellogenesis. The importance of autophagy for termination of vitellogenesis was confirmed by RNA interference (RNAi) depletions of several autophagic genes (ATGs), which inhibited autophagy and resulted in untimely hyper activation of TOR and prolonged production of the major yolk protein precursor, vitellogenin (Vg). RNAi depletion of the ecdysone receptor (EcR) demonstrated its activating role of autophagy. Depletion of the autophagic genes and of EcR led to inhibition of the competence factor, betaFTZ-F1, which is required for ecdysone-mediated developmental transitions. Moreover, autophagy-incompetent female mosquitoes were unable to complete the second reproductive cycle and exhibited retardation and abnormalities in egg maturation. Thus, our study has revealed a novel function of programmed autophagy in maintaining egg maturation cycles in mosquitoes.

Cell death by autophagy: facts and apparent artefacts

Autophagy (the process of self-digestion by a cell through the action of enzymes originating within the lysosome of the same cell) is a catabolic process that is generally used by the cell as a mechanism for quality control and survival under nutrient stress conditions. As autophagy is often induced under conditions of stress that could also lead to cell death, there has been a propagation of the idea that autophagy can act as a cell death mechanism. Although there is growing evidence of cell death by autophagy, this type of cell death, often called autophagic cell death, remains poorly defined and somewhat controversial. Merely the presence of autophagic markers in a cell undergoing death does not necessarily equate to autophagic cell death. Nevertheless, studies involving genetic manipulation of autophagy in physiological settings provide evidence for a direct role of autophagy in specific scenarios. This article endeavours to summarise these physiological studies where autophagy has a clear role in mediating the death process and discusses the potential significance of cell death by autophagy.

Expression of autophagy-related genes in the anterior silk gland of the silkworm (Bombyx mori) during metamorphosis

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a genetically regulated process of cell elimination and is evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotes. Degeneration of larval tissues during metamorphosis in insects is a result of PCD triggered by ecdysteroids and autophagic process has been shown to be involved in the degeneration of silk gland of the silkworm ( Bombyx mori L., 1758). However, experimental evidence for the expression of autophagy marker genes remains insufficient. In this study, expression of the autophagy-related genes BmAtg5, BmAtg6, BmAtg8, and BmAtg12 was determined in the anterior silk glands of larvae and pupae during larval to pupal transformation by using reverse-transcription PCR, quantitative real-time PCR, and Western blot analyses. The results indicated that BmAtg5, BmAtg6, BmAtg8, and BmAtg12 had the highest expression levels on the 3rd day of the wandering stage or at the prepupal stage, and the time frame of the expression of these genes was coincident with the morphological characteristics of autophagy in the silk gland during the larval to pupal transformation. This study demonstrated that the autophagy-related genes are involved in the degeneration of the anterior silk gland of B. mori.

Defining the core apoptosis pathway in the mosquito disease vector Aedes aegypti: the roles of iap1, ark, dronc, and effector caspases

To date, our knowledge of apoptosis regulation in insects comes almost exclusively from the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. In contrast, despite the identification of numerous genes that are presumed to regulate apoptosis in other insects based on sequence homology, little has been done to examine the molecular pathways that regulate apoptosis in other insects, including medically important disease vectors. In D. melanogaster, the core apoptosis pathway consists of the caspase negative regulator DIAP1, IAP antagonists, the initiator caspase Dronc and its activating protein Ark, and the effector caspase DrICE. Here we have studied the functions of several genes from the mosquito disease vector Aedes aegypti that share homology with the core apoptosis genes in D. melanogaster. Silencing of the iap1 gene in the A. aegypti cell line Aag2 caused spontaneous apoptosis, indicating that IAP1 plays a role in cell survival similar to that of DIAP1. Silencing A. aegypti ark or dronc completely inhibited apoptosis triggered by several different apoptotic stimuli. However, individual silencing of the effector caspases CASPS7 or CASPS8, which are the closest relatives to DrICE, only partially inhibited apoptosis, and silencing both CASPS7 and CASPS8 together did not have a significant additional effect. Our results suggest that the core pathway that regulates apoptosis in A. aegypti is similar to that of D. melanogaster, but that more than one effector caspase is involved in apoptosis in A. aegypti. This is interesting in light of the fact that the caspase family has expanded in mosquitoes compared to D. melanogaster.

Caspase signaling in animal development

The caspases are a family of cysteine proteases that function as central regulators of cell death. Recent investigations in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, and mice indicate that caspases are essential not only in controlling the number of cells involved in sculpting or deleting structures in developing animals, but also in dynamic cell processes such as cell-fate determination, compensatory proliferation of neighboring cells, and actin cytoskeleton reorganization, in a non-apoptotic context during development. This review focuses primarily on caspase functions involving their enzymatic activity.

Role of autophagy in disease resistance and hypersensitive response-associated cell death

Ancient autophagy pathways are emerging as key defense modules in host eukaryotic cells against microbial pathogens. Apart from actively eliminating intracellular intruders, autophagy is also responsible for cell survival, for example by reducing the deleterious effects of endoplasmic reticulum stress. At the same time, autophagy can contribute to cellular suicide. The concurrent engagement of autophagy in these processes during infection may sometimes mask its contribution to differing pro-survival and pro-death decisions. The importance of autophagy in innate immunity in mammals is well documented, but how autophagy contributes to plant innate immunity and cell death is not that clear. A few research reports have appeared recently to shed light on the roles of autophagy in plant-pathogen interactions and in disease-associated host cell death. We present a first attempt to reconcile the results of this research.

The multiple roles of autophagy in cancer

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved, catabolic process that involves the entrapment of cytoplasmic components within characteristic vesicles for their delivery to and degradation within lysosomes. Autophagy is regulated via a group of genes called AuTophaGy-related genes and is executed at basal levels in virtually all cells as a homeostatic mechanism for maintaining cellular integrity. The levels and cargos of autophagy can be modulated in response to a variety of intra- and extracellular cues to bring about specific and selective events. Autophagy is a multifaceted process and alterations in autophagic signalling pathways are frequently found in cancer and many other diseases. During tumour development and in cancer therapy, autophagy has paradoxically been reported to have roles in promoting both cell survival and cell death. In addition, autophagy has been reported to control other processes relevant to the aetiology of malignant disease, including oxidative stress, inflammation and both innate and acquired immunity. It is the aim of this review to describe the molecular basis and the signalling events that control autophagy in mammalian cells and to summarize the cellular functions that contribute to tumourigenesis when autophagy is perturbed.

The autophagy conundrum in cancer: influence of tumorigenic metabolic reprogramming

Tumorigenesis is often accompanied by metabolic changes that favor rapid energy production and increased biosynthetic capabilities. These metabolic adaptations promote the survival and proliferation of tumor cells, and in conjunction with the hypoxic and metabolically challenged tumor microenvironment, influence autophagic activity. Autophagy is a catabolic process that allows cellular macromolecules to be broken down and re-utilized as metabolic precursors. Stimulation of autophagy promotes the survival of tumor cells under stressful metabolic and environmental conditions, and counters the potentially deleterious effects of mitochondrial dysfunction and the ROS that these organelles generate. However, inhibition of autophagy has also been reported to fuel tumorigenesis. In spite of the advances in our understanding of the relationship between autophagy and tumorigenesis, it remains unclear whether the therapeutic approaches targeting autophagy should aim to increase or decrease autophagic flux in tumor tissues in human patients. Here, we review how metabolic reprogramming influences autophagic activity in tumors, and discuss how inhibition of autophagy might be exploited to target tumor cells that show altered metabolism.

A novel tissue in an established model system: the Drosophila pupal midgut

The Drosophila larval and adult midguts are derived from two populations of endodermal progenitors that separate from each other in the early embryo. As larval midgut cells differentiate into an epithelial layer, adult midgut progenitors (AMPs) remain as small clusters of proliferating, undifferentiated cells attached to the basal surface of the larval gut epithelium. During the first few hours of metamorphosis, AMPs merge into a continuous epithelial tube that overgrows the larval layer and differentiates into the adult midgut; at the same time, the larval midgut degenerates. As shown in this paper, there is a second, transient pupal midgut that develops from the AMPs at the beginning of metamorphosis and that intercalates between the adult and larval midgut epithelia. Cells of the transient pupal midgut form a multilayered tube that exhibits signs of differentiation, in the form of septate junctions and rudimentary apical microvilli. Some cells of the pupal midgut develop as endocrine cells. The pupal midgut remains closely attached to the degenerating larval midgut cells. Along with these cells, pupal midgut cells are sequestered into the lumen where they form the compact "yellow body." The formation of a pupal midgut has been reported from several other species and may represent a general feature of intestinal metamorphosis in insects.

Responses of two insect cell lines to starvation: autophagy prevents them from undergoing apoptosis and necrosis, respectively

The responses of insect cells to starvation and the characteristics of cell death after the depletion of nutrients remain largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated autophagy, apoptosis and necrosis in two Lepidoptera insect cell lines in response to amino acid starvation. Our data demonstrated that starvation induced a significant increase in autophagy in Spodoptera litura SL-ZSU-1 cells, and cell apoptosis followed autophagy after starvation of more than 48h. However, at an early stage of starvation, inhibition of autophagy with 3-MA rapidly triggered apoptosis of SL-ZSU-1 cells, suggesting autophagy inhibits cell apoptosis. By contrast, Bombyx mori SPC Bm36 cells died by a non-apoptotic pathway if the starvation was prolonged for more than 48 h. At the early stage of starvation, inhibition of autophagy with 3-MA did not trigger apoptosis in Bm36 cells, but resulted in necrotic-like cell death. Under starvation pressure, autophagy in SL-ZSU-1 cells was much more active than in Bm36 cells. The activity of caspase-9-like in apoptotic SL-ZSU-1 cells also was much higher than in apoptotic Bm36 cells. RT-PCR analyses revealed that transcriptional levels of saposin-like (Bm109) and Atg6 were undetectable in Bm36 cells, but expression level of saposin-like in SL-ZSU-1 was high. Expression of Atg6 in SL-ZSU-1 cells was not analyzed because its sequence was unknown. These data indicate that autophagy prevents Lepidoptera insect cells from death at an early stage of starvation, but prolonged starvation results in cell death. The pathways of cell death might be dependent on the abundance of caspase-9-like, saposin-like and Atg6.

Oncosuppressive functions of autophagy

Macroautophagy (herein referred to as autophagy) constitutes a phylogenetically old mechanism leading to the lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic structures. At baseline levels, autophagy exerts homeostatic functions by ensuring the turnover of potentially harmful organelles and long-lived aggregate-prone proteins. Moreover, the autophagic flow can be dramatically upregulated in response to a plethora of stressful conditions, including glucose, amino acid, oxygen, or growth factor deprivation, accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, and invasion by intracellular pathogens. In some experimental settings, stress-induced autophagy has been shown to contribute to programmed cell death. Nevertheless, autophagy most often confers cytoprotection by providing cells with new metabolic substrates or by ridding them of noxious intracellular entities including protein aggregates and invading organisms. Thus, autophagy has been implicated in an ever-increasing number of human diseases including cancer. Autophagy inhibition accelerates the demise of tumor cells that are subjected to chemo- or radiotherapy, thereby constituting an interesting target for the development of anticancer strategies. However, several oncosuppressor proteins and oncoproteins have been recently shown to stimulate and inhibit the autophagic flow, respectively, suggesting that autophagy exerts bona fide tumor-suppressive functions. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms by which autophagy may prevent oncogenesis.

Drosophila caspases involved in developmentally regulated programmed cell death of peptidergic neurons during early metamorphosis

A great number of obsolete larval neurons in the Drosophila central nervous system are eliminated by developmentally programmed cell death (PCD) during early metamorphosis. To elucidate the mechanisms of neuronal PCD occurring during this period, we undertook genetic dissection of seven currently known Drosophila caspases in the PCD of a group of interneurons (vCrz) that produce corazonin (Crz) neuropeptide in the ventral nerve cord. The molecular death program in the vCrz neurons initiates within 1 hour after pupariation, as demonstrated by the cytological signs of cell death and caspase activation. PCD was significantly suppressed in dronc-null mutants, but not in null mutants of either dredd or strica. A double mutation lacking both dronc and strica impaired PCD phenotype more severely than did a dronc mutation alone, but comparably to a triple dredd/strica/dronc mutation, indicating that dronc is a main initiator caspase, while strica plays a minor role that overlaps with dronc's. As for effector caspases, vCrz PCD requires both ice and dcp-1 functions, as they work cooperatively for a timely removal of the vCrz neurons. Interestingly, the activation of the Ice and Dcp-1 is not solely dependent on Dronc and Strica, implying an alternative pathway to activate the effectors. Two remaining effector caspase genes, decay and damm, found no apparent functions in the neuronal PCD, at least during early metamorphosis. Overall, our work revealed that vCrz PCD utilizes dronc, strica, dcp-1, and ice wherein the activation of Ice and Dcp-1 requires a novel pathway in addition to the initiator caspases.

The role of autophagy during development in higher eukaryotes

Autophagy is a lysosome-mediated degradation pathway used by eukaryotes to recycle cytosolic components in both basal and stress conditions. Several genes have been described as regulators of autophagy, many of them being evolutionarily conserved from yeast to mammals. The study of autophagy-defective model systems has made it possible to highlight the importance of correctly functioning autophagic machinery in the development of invertebrates as, for example, during the complex events of fly and worm metamorphosis. In vertebrates, on the other hand, autophagy defects can be lethal for the animal if the mutated gene is involved in the early stages of development, or can lead to severe phenotypes if the mutation affects later stages. However, in both lower and higher eukaryotes, autophagy seems to be crucial during embryogenesis by acting in tissue remodeling in parallel with apoptosis. An increase of autophagic cells is, in fact, observed in the embryonic stages characterized by massive cell elimination. Moreover, autophagic processes probably protect cells during metabolic stress and nutrient paucity that occur during tissue remodeling. In light of such evidence, it can be concluded that there is a close interplay between autophagy and the processes of cell death, proliferation and differentiation that determine the development of higher eukaryotes.

What can plant autophagy do for an innate immune response?

Autophagy plays an established role in the execution of senescence, starvation, and stress responses in plants. More recently, an emerging role for autophagy has been discovered during the plant innate immune response. Recent papers have shown autophagy to restrict, and conversely, to also promote programmed cell death (PCD) at the site of pathogen infection. These initial studies have piqued our excitement, but they have also revealed gaps in our understanding of plant autophagy regulation, in our ability to monitor autophagy in plant cells, and in our ability to manipulate autophagic activity. In this review, we present the most pressing questions now facing the field of plant autophagy in general, with specific focus on autophagy as it occurs during a plant-pathogen interaction. To begin to answer these questions, we place recent findings in the context of studies of autophagy and immunity in other systems, and in the context of the mammalian immune response in particular.

Drosophila EGFR pathway coordinates stem cell proliferation and gut remodeling following infection

Background

Gut homeostasis is central to whole organism health, and its disruption is associated with a broad range of pathologies. Following damage, complex physiological events are required in the gut to maintain proper homeostasis. Previously, we demonstrated that ingestion of a nonlethal pathogen, Erwinia carotovora carotovora 15, induces a massive increase in stem cell proliferation in the gut of Drosophila. However, the precise cellular events that occur following infection have not been quantitatively described, nor do we understand the interaction between multiple pathways that have been implicated in epithelium renewal.

Results

To understand the process of infection and epithelium renewal in more detail, we performed a quantitative analysis of several cellular and morphological characteristics of the gut. We observed that the gut of adult Drosophila undergoes a dynamic remodeling in response to bacterial infection. This remodeling coordinates the synthesis of new enterocytes, their proper morphogenesis and the elimination of damaged cells through delamination and anoikis. We demonstrate that one signaling pathway, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway, is key to controlling each of these steps through distinct functions in intestinal stem cells and enterocytes. The EGFR pathway is activated by the EGF ligands, Spitz, Keren and Vein, the latter being induced in the surrounding visceral muscles in part under the control of the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathway. Additionally, the EGFR pathway synergizes with the JAK/STAT pathway in stem cells to promote their proliferation. Finally, we show that the EGFR pathway contributes to gut morphogenesis through its activity in enterocytes and is required to properly coordinate the delamination and anoikis of damaged cells. This function of the EGFR pathway in enterocytes is key to maintaining homeostasis, as flies lacking EGFR are highly susceptible to infection.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that restoration of normal gut morphology following bacterial infection is a more complex phenomenon than previously described. Maintenance of gut homeostasis requires the coordination of stem cell proliferation and differentiation, with the incorporation and morphogenesis of new cells and the expulsion of damaged enterocytes. We show that one signaling pathway, the EGFR pathway, is central to all these stages, and its activation at multiple steps could synchronize the complex cellular events leading to gut repair and homeostasis.

Autophagy in mammalian development and differentiation

It has been known for many decades that autophagy, a conserved lysosomal degradation pathway, is highly active during differentiation and development. However, until the discovery of the autophagy-related (ATG) genes in the 1990s, the functional significance of this activity was unknown. Initially, genetic knockout studies of ATG genes in lower eukaryotes revealed an essential role for the autophagy pathway in differentiation and development. In recent years, the analyses of systemic and tissue-specific knockout models of ATG genes in mice has led to an explosion of knowledge about the functions of autophagy in mammalian development and differentiation. Here we review the main advances in our understanding of these functions.

Distinct death mechanisms in Drosophila development

Apoptosis and autophagic cell death occur during Drosophila development, and recent advances in their mechanisms have been made. As in other organisms, apoptosis is executed by caspases. In living cells, caspases are kept in check through a combination of IAP-binding and proteolytic inhibition. Once a cell commits to apoptosis, phagocytes recognize them through the immuno-receptor-like proteins Draper and Simu, and initiate corpse engulfment. Drosophila research has significantly contributed to the idea that autophagy is required for certain forms of cell death, and that caspase function in autophagic cell death depends on cell context. Surprisingly, the cell corpse engulfment receptor Draper also functions in autophagic cell death. These advances facilitate our understanding of the cell death mechanisms in development and disease.

Autophagic degradation of dBruce controls DNA fragmentation in nurse cells during late Drosophila melanogaster oogenesis

Blocking autophagy protects the apoptosis inhibitor dBruce from destruction and promotes nurse cell survival in developing egg chambers.

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved pathway responsible for degradation of cytoplasmic material via the lysosome. Although autophagy has been reported to contribute to cell death, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, we show that autophagy controls DNA fragmentation during late oogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. Inhibition of autophagy by genetically removing the function of the autophagy genes atg1, atg13, and vps34 resulted in late stage egg chambers that contained persisting nurse cell nuclei without fragmented DNA and attenuation of caspase-3 cleavage. The Drosophila inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) dBruce was found to colocalize with the autophagic marker GFP-Atg8a and accumulated in autophagy mutants. Nurse cells lacking Atg1 or Vps34 in addition to dBruce contained persisting nurse cell nuclei with fragmented DNA. This indicates that autophagic degradation of dBruce controls DNA fragmentation in nurse cells. Our results reveal autophagic degradation of an IAP as a novel mechanism of triggering cell death and thereby provide a mechanistic link between autophagy and cell death.

A caspase-like decoy molecule enhances the activity of a paralogous caspase in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti

Caspases are cysteine proteases that play critical roles in apoptosis and other key cellular processes. A mechanism of caspase regulation that has been described in mammals and nematodes involves caspase-like decoy molecules, enzymatically inactive caspase homologs that have arisen by gene duplication and acquired the ability to regulate other caspases. Caspase-like decoy molecules are not found in Drosophila melanogaster, raising the question of whether this type of caspase regulation exists in insects. Phylogenomic analysis of caspase genes from twelve Drosophila and three mosquito species revealed several examples of duplicated caspase homologs lacking critical catalytic residues, making them candidate caspase-like decoy molecules. One of these, CASPS18 from the mosquito Aedes aegypti, is a homolog of the D. melanogaster caspase Decay and contains substitutions in two critical amino acid positions, including the catalytic cysteine residue. As expected, CASPS18 lacked caspase activity, but co-expression of CASPS18 with a paralogous caspase, CASPS19, in mosquito cells or co-incubation of CASPS18 and CASPS19 recombinant proteins resulted in greatly enhanced CASPS19 activity. The discovery of potential caspase-like decoy molecules in several insect species opens new avenues for investigating caspase regulation in insects, particularly in disease vectors such as mosquitoes.

Activation of autophagy during cell death requires the engulfment receptor Draper

Autophagy degrades cytoplasmic components that are required for cell survival in response to starvation. Autophagy has also been associated with cell death, but it is unclear how this is distinguished from autophagy during cell survival. Drosophila salivary glands undergo programmed cell death that requires autophagy genes, and engulfment of salivary gland cells by phagocytes does not appear to occur. Here we show that Draper (Drpr), the Drosophila melanogaster orthologue of the Caenorhabditis elegans engulfment receptor CED-1, is required for autophagy during cell death. Null mutations in, and salivary gland-specific knockdown of, drpr inhibit salivary gland degradation. Knockdown of drpr prevents the induction of autophagy in dying salivary glands, and expression of the Atg1 autophagy regulator in drpr mutants suppresses the failure in degradation of salivary glands. Surprisingly, drpr is required in the same dying salivary gland cells in which it regulates autophagy induction, but drpr knockdown does not prevent starvation-induced autophagy in the fat body, which is associated with survival. In addition, components of the conserved engulfment pathway are required for clearance of dying salivary glands. To our knowledge, this is the first example of an engulfment factor that is required for self-clearance of cells. Further, Drpr is the first factor that distinguishes autophagy that is associated with cell death from autophagy associated with cell survival.

grim promotes programmed cell death of Drosophila microchaete glial cells

The Inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) antagonists Reaper (Rpr), Grim and Hid are central regulators of developmental apoptosis in Drosophila. Ectopic expression of each is sufficient to trigger apoptosis, and hid and rpr have been shown to be important for programmed cell death (PCD). To investigate the role for grim in PCD, a grim null mutant was generated. grim was not a key proapoptotic gene for embryonic PCD, confirming that grim cooperates with rpr and hid in embryogenesis. In contrast, PCD of glial cells in the microchaete lineage required grim, identifying a death process dependent upon endogenous grim. Grim associates with mitochondria and has been shown to activate a mitochondrial death pathway distinct from IAP antagonization; therefore, the Drosophila bcl-2 genes buffy and debcl were investigated for genetic interaction with grim. Loss of buffy led to microchaete glial cell survival and suppressed death in the eye induced by ectopic Grim. This is the first example of a developmental PCD process influenced by buffy, and places buffy in a proapoptotic role. PCD of microchaete glial cells represents an exceptional opportunity to study the mitochondrial proapoptotic process induced by Grim.

Axonal degeneration is regulated by the apoptotic machinery or a NAD+-sensitive pathway in insects and mammals

Selective degeneration of neuronal projections and neurite pruning are critical for establishment and maintenance of functional neural circuits in both insects and mammals. However, the molecular mechanisms that govern developmental neurite pruning versus injury-induced neurite degeneration are still mostly unclear. Here, we show that the effector caspases 6 and 3 are both expressed within axons and that, on trophic deprivation, they exhibit distinct modes of activation. Surprisingly, inhibition of caspases is not sufficient for axonal protection and a parallel modulation of a NAD(+)-sensitive pathway is required. The proapoptotic protein BAX is a key element in both pathways as its genetic ablation protected sensory axons against developmental degeneration both in vitro and in vivo. Last, we demonstrate that both pathways are also involved in developmental dendritic pruning in Drosophila. More specifically, the mouse Wld(S) (Wallerian degeneration slow) protein, which is mainly composed of the full-length sequence of the NAD(+) biosynthetic Nmnat1 enzyme, can suppress dendritic pruning in C4da (class IV dendritic arborization) sensory neurons in parallel to the fly effector caspases. These findings indicate that two distinct autodestruction pathways act separately or in concert to regulate developmental neurite pruning.

Induction of autophagy-dependent necroptosis is required for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells to overcome glucocorticoid resistance

In vivo resistance to first-line chemotherapy, including to glucocorticoids, is a strong predictor of poor outcome in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Modulation of cell death regulators represents an attractive strategy for subverting such drug resistance. Here we report complete resensitization of multidrug-resistant childhood ALL cells to glucocorticoids and other cytotoxic agents with subcytotoxic concentrations of obatoclax, a putative antagonist of BCL-2 family members. The reversal of glucocorticoid resistance occurred through rapid activation of autophagy-dependent necroptosis, which bypassed the block in mitochondrial apoptosis. This effect was associated with dissociation of the autophagy inducer beclin-1 from the antiapoptotic BCL-2 family member myeloid cell leukemia sequence 1 (MCL-1) and with a marked decrease in mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activity. Consistent with a protective role for mTOR in glucocorticoid resistance in childhood ALL, combination of rapamycin with the glucocorticoid dexamethasone triggered autophagy-dependent cell death, with characteristic features of necroptosis. Execution of cell death, but not induction of autophagy, was strictly dependent on expression of receptor-interacting protein (RIP-1) kinase and cylindromatosis (turban tumor syndrome) (CYLD), two key regulators of necroptosis. Accordingly, both inhibition of RIP-1 and interference with CYLD restored glucocorticoid resistance completely. Together with evidence for a chemosensitizing activity of obatoclax in vivo, our data provide a compelling rationale for clinical translation of this pharmacological approach into treatments for patients with refractory ALL.

Autophagy in health and disease. 1. Regulation and significance of autophagy: an overview

Macroautophagy is a vacuolar degradation pathway that terminates in the lysosomal compartment after formation of a cytoplasmic vacuole or autophagosome that engulfs macromolecules and organelles. The identification of ATG (autophagy-related) genes that are involved in the formation of autophagosomes has greatly increased our knowledge of the molecular basis of macroautophagy, and its roles in cell function, which extend far beyond degradation and quality control of the cytoplasm. Macroautophagy, which plays a major role in tissue homeostasis, is now recognized as contributing to innate and adaptive immune responses. Recently, several mediators of apoptosis have been shown to control macroautophagy. Deciphering the cross talk between macroautophagy and apoptosis probably should help increase understanding of the role of macroautophagy in human disease and is likely to be of therapeutic importance.

Autophagy takes flight in Drosophila

Drosophila has been shown to be a powerful model to study autophagy, whose regulation involves a core machinery consisting of Atg proteins and upstream signaling regulators similar to those in yeast and mammals. The conserved role in degrading proteins and organelles gives autophagy an important function in coordinating several cellular processes as well as in a number of pathological conditions. This review summarizes key studies in Drosophila autophagy research and discusses potential questions that may lead to better understanding of the roles and regulation of autophagy in higher eukaryotes.

Cytoprotective roles for autophagy

Macroautophagy (referred to as autophagy in this review) is a genetically regulated bulk degradation program conserved from yeast to humans, in which cytoplasmic substrates, such as damaged organelles and long-lived proteins, are delivered to lysosomes for degradation. In this review, we consider recent data that highlight possible mechanisms whereby autophagy mediates cytoprotective effects. These include the ability of autophagy to buffer against starvation, protect against apoptotic insults and clear mitochondria, aggregate-prone proteins and pathogens. These effects are pertinent to the roles of autophagy in normal human physiology, including the early neonatal period and ageing, as well as a variety of diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative conditions and infectious diseases.