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Navarro T, Iannini A, Neto M, Campoy-Lopez A, Muñoz-García J, Pereira PS, Ares S, Casares F. Feedback control of organ size precision is mediated by BMP2-regulated apoptosis in the Drosophila eye. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002450. [PMID: 38289899 PMCID: PMC10826937 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 02/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Biological processes are intrinsically noisy, and yet, the result of development-like the species-specific size and shape of organs-is usually remarkably precise. This precision suggests the existence of mechanisms of feedback control that ensure that deviations from a target size are minimized. Still, we have very limited understanding of how these mechanisms operate. Here, we investigate the problem of organ size precision using the Drosophila eye. The size of the adult eye depends on the rates at which eye progenitor cells grow and differentiate. We first find that the progenitor net growth rate results from the balance between their proliferation and apoptosis, with this latter contributing to determining both final eye size and its variability. In turn, apoptosis of progenitor cells is hampered by Dpp, a BMP2/4 signaling molecule transiently produced by early differentiating retinal cells. Our genetic and computational experiments show how the status of retinal differentiation is communicated to progenitors through the differentiation-dependent production of Dpp, which, by adjusting the rate of apoptosis, exerts a feedback control over the net growth of progenitors to reduce final eye size variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomas Navarro
- CABD, CSIC/Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
| | | | - Marta Neto
- CABD, CSIC/Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
| | - Alejandro Campoy-Lopez
- CABD, CSIC/Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
- ALMIA, CABD, CSIC/Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
| | - Javier Muñoz-García
- Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC) and Departamento de Matematicas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganes, Spain
| | - Paulo S. Pereira
- I3S, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saude, Universidade do Porto; IBMC- Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Saúl Ares
- Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC) and Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia (CNB), CSIC, Madrid, Spain
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Míguez DG, Iannini A, García-Morales D, Casares F. The effects of Hh morphogen source movement on signaling dynamics. Development 2022; 149:285865. [PMID: 36355083 PMCID: PMC10114110 DOI: 10.1242/dev.199842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Morphogens of the Hh family trigger gene expression changes in receiving cells in a concentration-dependent manner to regulate their identity, proliferation, death or metabolism, depending on the tissue or organ. This variety of responses relies on a conserved signaling pathway. Its logic includes a negative-feedback loop involving the Hh receptor Ptc. Here, using experiments and computational models we study and compare the different spatial signaling profiles downstream of Hh in several developing Drosophila organs. We show that the spatial distributions of Ptc and the activator transcription factor CiA in wing, antenna and ocellus show similar features, but are markedly different from that in the compound eye. We propose that these two profile types represent two time points along the signaling dynamics, and that the interplay between the spatial displacement of the Hh source in the compound eye and the negative-feedback loop maintains the receiving cells effectively in an earlier stage of signaling. These results show how the interaction between spatial and temporal dynamics of signaling and differentiation processes may contribute to the informational versatility of the conserved Hh signaling pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- David G Míguez
- Departmento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Instituto de Física de la Materia Condensada (IFIMAC), Facultad de Ciencias, and Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBMSO, CSIC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
| | - Antonella Iannini
- Gene Expression and Morphogenesis Department, CABD (Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology), CSIC/Universidad Pablo de Olavide/Junta de Andalucia, Campus UPO, 41013 Seville, Spain
| | - Diana García-Morales
- Gene Expression and Morphogenesis Department, CABD (Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology), CSIC/Universidad Pablo de Olavide/Junta de Andalucia, Campus UPO, 41013 Seville, Spain
| | - Fernando Casares
- Gene Expression and Morphogenesis Department, CABD (Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology), CSIC/Universidad Pablo de Olavide/Junta de Andalucia, Campus UPO, 41013 Seville, Spain
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Lobo-Cabrera FJ, Navarro T, Iannini A, Casares F, Cuetos A. Quantitative Relationships Between Growth, Differentiation, and Shape That Control Drosophila Eye Development and Its Variation. Front Cell Dev Biol 2021; 9:681933. [PMID: 34350178 PMCID: PMC8326509 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.681933] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The size of organs is critical for their function and often a defining trait of a species. Still, how organs reach a species-specific size or how this size varies during evolution are problems not yet solved. Here, we have investigated the conditions that ensure growth termination, variation of final size and the stability of the process for developmental systems that grow and differentiate simultaneously. Specifically, we present a theoretical model for the development of the Drosophila eye, a system where a wave of differentiation sweeps across a growing primordium. This model, which describes the system in a simplified form, predicts universal relationships linking final eye size and developmental time to a single parameter which integrates genetically-controlled variables, the rates of cell proliferation and differentiation, with geometrical factors. We find that the predictions of the theoretical model show good agreement with previously published experimental results. We also develop a new computational model that recapitulates the process more realistically and find concordance between this model and theory as well, but only when the primordium is circular. However, when the primordium is elliptical both models show discrepancies. We explain this difference by the mechanical interactions between cells, an aspect that is not included in the theoretical model. Globally, our work defines the quantitative relationships between rates of growth and differentiation and organ primordium size that ensure growth termination (and, thereby, specify final eye size) and determine the duration of the process; identifies geometrical dependencies of both size and developmental time; and uncovers potential instabilities of the system which might constraint developmental strategies to evolve eyes of different size.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tomás Navarro
- DMC2-GEM Unit, The CABD, CSIC-Pablo de Olavide University-JA, Seville, Spain
| | - Antonella Iannini
- DMC2-GEM Unit, The CABD, CSIC-Pablo de Olavide University-JA, Seville, Spain
| | - Fernando Casares
- DMC2-GEM Unit, The CABD, CSIC-Pablo de Olavide University-JA, Seville, Spain
| | - Alejandro Cuetos
- Department of Physical, Chemical and Natural Systems, Pablo de Olavide University, Sevilla, Spain
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García-Morales D, Navarro T, Iannini A, Pereira PS, Míguez DG, Casares F. Dynamic Hh signalling can generate temporal information during tissue patterning. Development 2019; 146:dev.176933. [PMID: 30918051 DOI: 10.1242/dev.176933] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2019] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
The differentiation of tissues and organs requires that cells exchange information in space and time. Spatial information is often conveyed by morphogens: molecules that disperse across receiving cells to generate signalling gradients. Cells translate such concentration gradients into space-dependent patterns of gene expression and cellular behaviour. But could morphogen gradients also convey developmental time? Here, by investigating the developmental role of Hh on a component of the Drosophila visual system, the ocellar retina, we have discovered that ocellar cells use the non-linear gradient of Hh as a temporal cue, collectively performing the biological equivalent of a mathematical logarithmic transformation. In this way, a morphogen diffusing from a non-moving source is decoded as a wave of differentiating photoreceptors that travels at constant speed throughout the retinal epithelium.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana García-Morales
- CABD (CSIC-Universidad Pablo de Olavide-Junta de Andalucía), GEM-DMC2 Unit, Campus UPO, 41013 Seville, Spain
| | - Tomás Navarro
- CABD (CSIC-Universidad Pablo de Olavide-Junta de Andalucía), GEM-DMC2 Unit, Campus UPO, 41013 Seville, Spain
| | - Antonella Iannini
- CABD (CSIC-Universidad Pablo de Olavide-Junta de Andalucía), GEM-DMC2 Unit, Campus UPO, 41013 Seville, Spain
| | - Paulo S Pereira
- Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular/i3S, Universidade do Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
| | - David G Míguez
- Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
| | - Fernando Casares
- CABD (CSIC-Universidad Pablo de Olavide-Junta de Andalucía), GEM-DMC2 Unit, Campus UPO, 41013 Seville, Spain
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Vollmer J, Fried P, Aguilar-Hidalgo D, Sánchez-Aragón M, Iannini A, Casares F, Iber D. Growth control in the Drosophila eye disc by the cytokine Unpaired. Development 2017; 144:837-843. [PMID: 28246213 DOI: 10.1242/dev.141309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2016] [Accepted: 01/10/2017] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
A fundamental question in developmental biology is how organ size is controlled. We have previously shown that the area growth rate in the Drosophila eye primordium declines inversely proportionally to the increase in its area. How the observed reduction in the growth rate is achieved is unknown. Here, we explore the dilution of the cytokine Unpaired (Upd) as a possible candidate mechanism. In the developing eye, upd expression is transient, ceasing at the time when the morphogenetic furrow first emerges. We confirm experimentally that the diffusion and stability of the JAK/STAT ligand Upd are sufficient to control eye disc growth via a dilution mechanism. We further show that sequestration of Upd by ectopic expression of an inactive form of the receptor Domeless (Dome) results in a substantially lower growth rate, but the area growth rate still declines inversely proportionally to the area increase. This growth rate-to-area relationship is no longer observed when Upd dilution is prevented by the continuous, ectopic expression of Upd. We conclude that a mechanism based on the dilution of the growth modulator Upd can explain how growth termination is controlled in the eye disc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jannik Vollmer
- Department of Biosystems, Science and Engineering (D-BSSE), ETH Zurich, Mattenstraße 26, Basel 4058, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Mattenstraße 26, Basel 4058, Switzerland
| | - Patrick Fried
- Department of Biosystems, Science and Engineering (D-BSSE), ETH Zurich, Mattenstraße 26, Basel 4058, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Mattenstraße 26, Basel 4058, Switzerland
| | - Daniel Aguilar-Hidalgo
- Department of Gene Regulation and Morphogenesis, CABD, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville 41013, Spain
| | - Máximo Sánchez-Aragón
- Department of Gene Regulation and Morphogenesis, CABD, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville 41013, Spain
| | - Antonella Iannini
- Department of Gene Regulation and Morphogenesis, CABD, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville 41013, Spain
| | - Fernando Casares
- Department of Gene Regulation and Morphogenesis, CABD, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville 41013, Spain
| | - Dagmar Iber
- Department of Biosystems, Science and Engineering (D-BSSE), ETH Zurich, Mattenstraße 26, Basel 4058, Switzerland .,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), Mattenstraße 26, Basel 4058, Switzerland
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Abstract
Organ size and pattern results from the integration of two positional information systems. One global information system, encoded by the Hox genes, links organ type with position along the main body axis. Within specific organs, local information is conveyed by signaling molecules that regulate organ growth and pattern. The mesothoracic (T2) wing and the metathoracic (T3) haltere of Drosophila represent a paradigmatic example of this coordination. The Hox gene Ultrabithorax (Ubx), expressed in the developing T3, selects haltere identity by, among other processes, modulating the production and signaling efficiency of Dpp, a BMP2-like molecule that acts as a major regulator of size and pattern. However, the mechanisms of the Hox-signal integration in this well-studied system are incomplete. Here, we have investigated this issue by studying the expression and function of the Six3 transcription factor optix during Drosophila wing and haltere development. We find that in both organs, Dpp defines the expression domain of optix through repression, and that the specific position of this domain in wing and haltere seems to reflect the differential signaling profile among these organs. We show that optix expression in wing and haltere primordia is conserved beyond Drosophila in other higher diptera. In Drosophila, optix is necessary for the growth of wing and haltere. In the wing, optix is required for the growth of the most anterior/proximal region (the ‘marginal cell’) and for the correct formation of sensory structures along the proximal anterior wing margin; the halteres of optix mutants are also significantly reduced. In addition, in the haltere, optix is necessary for the suppression of sensory bristles. Summary: The position of the Six3 optix is regulated by the Dpp pathway during wing and haltere development, and controls the size of both serially homologous organs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amer Al Khatib
- Department of Gene Regulation and Morphogenesis, Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD), CSIC-Pablo de Olavide University-JA, 41013 Seville, Spain.,Department of Biology, University of Florence, I-50019, Florence, Italy
| | - Natalia Siomava
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Goettingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), Department of Developmental Biology, University of Goettingen, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Antonella Iannini
- Department of Gene Regulation and Morphogenesis, Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD), CSIC-Pablo de Olavide University-JA, 41013 Seville, Spain
| | - Nico Posnien
- Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Goettingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), Department of Developmental Biology, University of Goettingen, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Fernando Casares
- Department of Gene Regulation and Morphogenesis, Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD), CSIC-Pablo de Olavide University-JA, 41013 Seville, Spain
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