Glial cells play essential roles in the nervous system. Although glial populations are tightly regulated, the mechanisms regulating the population size remain poorly understood. Since Drosophila glial cells are similar to the human counterparts in their functions and shapes, rendering them an excellent model system to understand the human glia biology. Lipid phosphate phosphatases (LPPs) are important for regulating bioactive lipids. In Drosophila, there are three known LPP-encoding genes: wunen, wunen-2, and lazaro. The wunens are important for germ cell migration and survival and septate junction formation during tracheal development. Lazaro is involved in phototransduction. In the present study, we characterized a novel Drosophila LPP-encoding gene, CG11426. Suppression of CG11426 increased glial cell number in the eye imaginal disc during larval development, while ectopic CG11426 expression decreased it. Both types of mutation also caused defects in axon projection to the optic lobe in larval eye–brain complexes. Moreover, CG11426 promoted apoptosis via inhibiting ERK signaling in the eye imaginal disc. Taken together, these findings demonstrated that CG11426 gene product negatively regulates ERK signaling to promote apoptosis for proper maintenance of the glial population in the developing eye disc.

中文翻译：

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CG11426 基因产物负向调节果蝇眼成像盘中的神经胶质种群大小

神经胶质细胞在神经系统中发挥重要作用。尽管神经胶质种群受到严格监管，但调节种群大小的机制仍然知之甚少。由于果蝇神经胶质细胞在功能和形状上与人类同类细胞相似，因此它们是了解人类神经胶质生物学的绝佳模型系统。磷酸脂磷酸酶 (LPP) 对调节生物活性脂质很重要。在果蝇中，有三个已知的 LPP 编码基因：wunen、wunen-2和lazaro。wunens 对气管发育过程中的生殖细胞迁移和存活以及隔膜连接形成很重要。拉萨罗参与光转导。在本研究中，我们描述了一种新的果蝇LPP 编码基因CG11426。CG11426的抑制增加了幼虫发育过程中眼成虫盘中的神经胶质细胞数量，而异位CG11426表达减少了它。这两种类型的突变也导致幼虫眼 - 脑复合体中视叶的轴突投射缺陷。此外，CG11426通过抑制眼想象盘中的 ERK 信号传导来促进细胞凋亡。总之，这些发现表明CG11426基因产物负向调节 ERK 信号传导以促进细胞凋亡，从而适当维持发育中的眼盘中的胶质细胞群。