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Frizzled signalling controls orientation of asymmetric sense organ precursor cell divisions in Drosophila

Nature volume 393, pages 178–181 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

During metazoan development, cell-fate diversity is brought about, in part, by asymmetric cell divisions1. In Drosophila, bristle mechanosensory organs are composed of four different cells that originate from a single precursor cell, pI, after two rounds of asymmetric division2. At each division, distinct fates are conferred on sister cells by the asymmetric segregation of Numb, a negative regulator of Notch signalling3,4,5,6. Here we show that the orientation of the mitotic spindles and the localization of the Numb crescent follow a stereotyped pattern. Mitosis of pI is orientated parallel to the anteroposterior axis of the fly. We show that signalling mediated by the Frizzled receptor polarizes pI along this axis, thereby specifying the orientation of the mitotic spindle and positioning the Numb crescent. The mitoses of the two cells produced by mitosis of pI are orientated parallel and orthogonal, respectively, to the division axis of pI. This difference in cell-division orientation is largely independent of the identity of the secondary precursor cells, and is regulated by Frizzled-independent mechanisms.

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Figure 1: Orientation of cell divisions in the bristle lineage.
Figure 2: The orientation of the pIIb division is largely independent of its cell identity.
Figure 3: Orientation of cell divisions in fz and dsh mutant pupae.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Adler, E. Bier, D.Coen, F. Chanut, C. Doe, Y.-N. Jan, T. Lieber and the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank for flies and antibodies; F. Rosa and M. Wassef for critical reading of the manuscript; and the Imaging facility of the Institut Jacques Monod for use of confocal microscopes. This work was supported by grants from the CNRS, the MENESR, the Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale, the Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer and the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer — Comité de Paris.

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  1. Laboratoire de G´nétique du Développement de la Drosophile, URA 1857, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 46 rue d'Ulm, Paris, 75005, France

    Michel Gho & François Schweisguth

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  2. François Schweisguth
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Correspondence to Michel Gho.

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Gho, M., Schweisguth, F. Frizzled signalling controls orientation of asymmetric sense organ precursor cell divisions in Drosophila. Nature 393, 178–181 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/30265

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