Developing sensory organ cells expressing normal (left) or activated Cdk1 (right). Increased cell proliferation (right) is caused by self-renewal of progenitor cells when mis-regulation of G2 phase arrest drives premature asymmetric cell division. Image is from an article by Ayeni et al. recently published in the journal Development (Cambridge, Company of Biologists) entitled 'G2 phase arrest prevents bristle progenitor self-renewal and synchronizes cell division with cell fate differentiation' (2016).
During Drosophila development, progenitor cells arrest in G2 phase for precise periods of time before undergoing cell divisions accompanied by terminal differentiation to create a sensory organ. Dr Joseph Ayeni along with Department of Biological Sciences scientists Shelagh Campbell and Martin Srayko (and their collaborators at the University of Paris, UPMC) used live imaging and transgenic reporters to study how regulation of cell division timing affects cell fate. They discovered that regulation of mitotic kinase activity not only limits entry into mitosis but also profoundly affects progenitor cell self-renewal potential, an unanticipated property with exciting implications for stem cell biology. These new insights into the cell biology of Drosophila development demonstrate how model organism research advances our understanding of fundamental genetic mechanisms that underlie animal development.
View the full article here: Development (2016) 143, 1160-1169 doi:10.1242/dev.134270