IMR Press / FBL / Volume 27 / Issue 6 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbl2706176
Open Access Original Research
Phosphatase of Regenerating Liver-1 Regulates Wing Vein Formation through TGF-β Pathway in Drosophila melanogaster
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1 Division of Human Reproduction and Developmental Genetics, The Women's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 310006 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
2 Institute of Genetics, Zhejiang University, and Department of Genetics, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 310058 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
3 Joint Institute of Genetics and Genomic Medicine between Zhejiang University and University of Toronto, Zhejiang University, 310058 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
*Correspondence: xyyongm@zju.edu.cn (Yongmei Xi); xhyang@zju.edu.cn (Xiaohang Yang)
Academic Editor: Ranieri Bizzarr
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2022, 27(6), 176; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbl2706176
Submitted: 25 March 2022 | Revised: 15 May 2022 | Accepted: 27 May 2022 | Published: 1 June 2022
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Drosophila Phosphatase of Regenerating Liver-1 (PRL-1) is the only homolog of the mammalian PRLs with which it shares high sequence and structural similarities. Whilst PRLs are most notable for their high expression in malignant cancers and related promotion of cancer progression, the specific biological functions of the PRLs remain largely elusive. Methods: Here, using a gain-of-function approach, we found that PRL-1 functions during wing vein development in Drosophila melanogaster (Drosophila). Overexpression of Drosophila PRL-1 caused dose-dependent wing vein proliferation. Results: Genetic screening of the main TGF-β signaling factors, Mad and Smox, showed that the RNAi-mediated knockdown of Mad could alleviate the extra vein phenotype caused by overexpressed PRL-1 and lead to loss of the posterior section of longitudinal veins. However, knockdown of Smox resulted in an identical phenotype with or without the overexpression of Drosophila PRL-1. Clonal analyses revealed that overexpression of PRL-1 led to decreased expressions of activated phospho-Mad protein, as measured by immunostaining. Real-time PCR showed that the transcriptional levels of Smox were significantly increased upon overexpression of the Drosophila PRL-1 in wing discs, with a dose dependent effect. Conclusions: We propose that the main function of Drosophila PRL-1 in wing development is to affect the phospho-Mad levels and Smox transcriptional levels, therefore influencing the competitive balance for Medea between Mad and Smox. Our study demonstrates the novel role for Drosophila PRL-1 in regulating TGF-β signaling to influence wing vein formation which may also provide insight into the understanding of the relationship between PRLs and TGF-β signaling in mammals.

Keywords
PRL-1
Smox
TGF-β
wing vein
Drosophila
Figures
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