mTORC1 is required for differentiation of germline stem cells in the Drosophila melanogaster testis
Posted on: 28 November 2022 , updated on: 8 May 2024
Preprint posted on 25 July 2022
Article now published in PLOS ONE at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300337
One signal to differentiate them both and in timed development bind them: Tor is required for germ cell differentiation and its coordination with supporting somatic cells in the Drosophila testis
Selected by Diego Sainz de la MazaCategories: cell biology, developmental biology, genetics
Updated 8 May 2024 with a postLight by Diego Sainz de la Maza
The highlighted preprint has recently been published in PLOS ONE.
The core of the work remains quite similar to what was presented in the preprint, but further quantifications provided by the authors make their conclusions more solid.
One of the main points brought forward by this work is that Tor is involved in germ cell differentiation. The authors knocked down Tor in the germline and observed an increase in germ cells with dotted-like structures called spectrosomes, a hallmark of their undifferentiated status. In the peer-reviewed paper, they quantified this observation and confirmed their results. They also validated this phenotype by using several RNAi constructs and by checking that Tor RNAi drove the expected decrease in the levels of pS6. Intriguingly, the quantifications show that even when Tor knockdown causes early germ cells to accumulate, the number of germline stem cells contacting the niche decreases.
In their preprint, the authors reported large cytoplasmic structures in Tor-depleted early germ cells which were absent in controls. They stained for Lysotracker and Atg8a and claimed that these structures were large autophagosomes. In the peer-reviewed paper, they have quantified the number of autophagosomes and their size, confirming their previous observations.
Overall, the authors have further supported the conclusions of the preprint with stronger data, mainly quantifications for their observed phenotypes.
Investigating how Tor regulates stem cell numbers and how Tor coordinates the differentiation of both germ and somatic lineages remain interesting future directions to study.
Background
Adult stem cells maintain tissue homeostasis by balancing self-renewal and differentiation. They reside in specialized microenvironments termed niches, where they receive supporting signaling molecules. Metabolism has been increasingly linked to cell fate decisions, but how metabolic cues are integrated with the signaling occurring in the stem cell niche is still unclear.
The Drosophila testis has a stem cell niche located at the apical tip of the tissue, which suports two different stem cell populations. Germline stem cells (GSCs) self-renew and give rise to gonialblasts, which undergo four uncomplete divisions and produce germ cysts consisting of 2, 4, 8 or 16 spermatogonia. Somatic stem cells are termed cyst stem cells, and give rise to cyst cells, which ensheath the germline and support it throughout its development.
Previous findings suggest that the testis is highly sensitive to metabolic perturbations. Firstly, citrate from the gut reaches the testis and is required for sperm maturation. Secondly, protein starvation causes the death of transit-amplifying germ cells. In addition, insulin signaling is required by supporting somatic cells to differentiate. And finally, previous work from the Jones Lab showed that depletion of the regulator of mitochondrial fusion Mitofusin induced loss of GSCs in a TOR-dependent manner.
The preprint I have chosen to highlight explores the effects of TOR signaling on the germline and the entire tissue in great detail.
Why I chose this study
Metabolism has often been regarded as a mere succession of chemical reactions aimed to either obtain energy or synthesize macromolecules. From that point of view, metabolism would be a downstream effector of cellular choices already taken at the transcriptional level.
However, it has been reported that increasing activity of specific metabolic pathways can affect cell proliferative capacity or influence cell fate choices. These observations raise the possibility that metabolism can also influence cellular decision making. Considering that cells reside in tissues and are continuously sensing their surrounding environment, it seems reasonable that nutrient availability and the subsequent activity of metabolic pathways has certain degree of crosstalk with signaling pathways and ultimately with cell behaviour.
As far as stem cells are concerned, they are involved in tremendously complex processes such as development or tissue homeostasis. One could predict that stem cells need to coordinate the production of new cells to a favourable nutritional or metabolic status, a very exciting field that has not been extensively explored.
This highlighted preprint explores the role of TOR in germline differentiation. I chose this preprint because previous work had already linked TOR activity as a requirement for differentiation of somatic cells. Do both the soma and the germline integrate metabolic cues through TOR signaling? Is TOR responsible for differentiation in both cases? In addition to the effects that TOR could have on both lineages autonomously, this preprint raises another important question, which is how the cell identity of a cell affects other surrounding cell types when they must differentiate in a coordinated manner, as can be observed in the testis.
Main findings
TOR is present and active in early germ cells
The authors studied the presence and activity of TOR across the germline. To study its location, they used a TOR::GFP fusion protein. They reported that GSCs and early germ cells had higher levels of TOR than differentiating spermatogonia, which had lower levels and were restricted to the nucleus. In order to check where TOR is active, they used an antibody against the phosphorylated form of a TOR target and detected its signal in a subset of GSCs and early germ cells. Thus, TOR is present mostly in early germ cells and is active in a subset of them. When germ cells differentiate, TOR levels decrease.
TOR activity is required in early germ cells for differentiation
The authors addressed the impact of TOR on germ cell identity by performing loss of function experiments. They knocked down TOR in the germline and observed an accumulation of early germ cells in the tissue. No phenotype was observed when TOR was knocked down in germ cells that had started their differentiation program. This suggests that TOR activity is required in early germ cells for their differentiation and once its differentiation program has started TOR is downregulated and no longer required.
TOR knockdown in early germ cells triggers differentiation of somatic cells
Finally, the authors asked if disruption of germ cell identity had a non-autonomous effect on the neighbouring somatic cells. They knocked down TOR in the germline and studied somatic cell identity. They observed that TOR knockdown in the germline significantly decreased the number of somatic cells expressing a marker for early somatic cells. They checked if somatic cells were lost to differentiation in this context and found that knockdown of TOR in the germline upregulated TOR activity in the soma and caused the premature appearance of differentiation markers in the somatic cells. These data suggests that TOR downregulation couples germ cell and soma differentiation.
In conclusion, these findings support a model where active TOR in the germline is required to start its differentiation program and once this is triggered TOR signaling is no longer required. This downregulation of TOR in the germline is sensed by the soma, which starts its differentiation program to support the germline.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/prelights.33199
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