Make room for dedifferentiation.

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X Rebecca Sheng, Erika L Matunis

Abstract

The reversal of cellular differentiation, or dedifferentiation, has fascinated biologists for many decades. While cells can be re-programmed extensively in culture, examples of in vivo dedifferentiation have recently emerged in both vertebrate and invertebrate systems, allowing for analysis of this intriguing process under more physiologically relevant conditions. Studies suggest that dedifferentiation occurs not only during large-scale cellular regeneration, but also at low levels to replenish stem cells lost due to normal turnover. Our recent paper demonstrates a novel method to induce the dedifferentiation of lineage-committed stem cell daughters back into germline stem cells (GSCs) in the Drosophila testis. We also show a requirement for activation of Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (Jak-STAT) signaling in this process, and suggest that normally non-motile germline cells gain mobility and out-compete resident somatic cells for occupancy in the stem cell-maintaining microenvironment (niche). Here, we discuss what our findings reveal about stem cell competition and the capacity of various cell types to dedifferentiate.

Citations

Apr 11, 2012·Biotechnology Journal·Fani Papagiannouli, Ingrid Lohmann
May 2, 2015·Current Opinion in Genetics & Development·Lijuan Feng, Xin Chen
Jun 10, 2010·Clinical Cancer Research : an Official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Research·Antonio PannutiLucio Miele

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