We demonstrate the usefulness of EpiTools by analyzing Drosophila wing imaginal disc growth, revealing previously overlooked properties of this dynamic tissue, such as the patterns of cellular rearrangements.
Depletion of the Mad transcription factor using RNAi [6] caused inhibition of wing imaginal disc growth (Figure 2D).
Figure 3 illustrates the magnitude of differences for arylphorin, serpin, imaginal disc growth factor 4, and a shrub-like protein.
The results indicate that while Dpp/Mad signaling promotes wing imaginal disc growth, endogenous dSmad2 signaling has the opposite effect.
Similarly, the effects of Drosophila Smad2 knockdown on wing disc growth also required Mad (Figure 6E 6H).
During imaginal disc growth, Slbp mutant cells show defects in S phase and proliferate more slowly than control cells.
Among these genes, mRNA abundance of enolase, transketolase and imaginal disc growth factor 4 genes were increased in queen larvae, and aldehyde dehydrogenase were increased in worker larvae.
For example, EGF/MAPK, Notch and Hedgehog signaling are important in wing patterning, and disc growth requires Wg signaling and JAK/STAT activity [38].
These exhibit an array of cellular and developmental phenotypes including abnormal imaginal disc growth, hemocyte overgrowth and melanotic tumors, and wing abnormalities.
It might be related to imaginal disc growth in the puapl stage or signal regulation to excrete endogenous contents unnecessary for pupal metamorphosis.
In addition, we renamed the previously reported AgBR1 and AgBR2 genes [28] as AgIDGF2 and AgIDGF4, respectively, to reflect their sequence similarities to other insect imaginal disc growth factors (IDGFs).
