Cancer modeling in Drosophila.
Cancer modelling in Drosophila
Drosophila lethal giant larvae (lgl) is an
evolutionarily conserved tumor suppressor gene whose loss of
function leads to neoplastic growth of the ectodermal derivatives,
which develop in 3D-growing masses killing the animal at the end of
the larval life. When tumorous tissues from lgl mutant
larvae are transplanted into wild-type recipients, they are able to
grow and migrate to distant sites killing the host. Despite this
intrinsically relevant neoplastic potential, clones of lgl
cells in epithelial tissues are partially or completely removed
during development due to cell competition. We thus built-up a
series of genetic instruments that allow to alter either lgl
cells or normal adjacent tissue and visualize the behavior of both
populations in vivo. This way we can use lgl cells as
reporters within the animal and follow their possible invasive and
migratory movements, correlating such behaviors to the molecular
alteration induced. Beside this, we analyze the expression profile
of the neoplastic lesions at different stages in search of
molecules involved in cancer progression; the high functional
homology between Drosophila and humans in genes controlling
proliferation and growth makes this model a powerful and reliable
tool for the study of complex genetic mechanisms such as those
underlying tumorigenesis.
