Negative Regulation of Cell-proliferation of Adult Stem Cells in the Midgut and Hindgut by dMats in Drosophila melanogaster

The existence of adult stem cells in the midgut and hindgut of Drosophila has been reported. The components of Hippo pathway such as dWarts and dYki were involved in the regulation of stem cell proliferation in the midgut. In this study, we reported the role of dMats in the control of stem cell proliferation in the midgut and hindgut of adult fruit fly. The eGFP signals driven by dmats indicated that dMats expressed in small diploid cells in the adult midgut and hindgut. By inducing MARCM cell clones, the dmats -/-cell clones in the midgut exhibited a bigger cell number than wild type cell clones and tissue outgrowth. Similarly, the dmats-/- mutation also caused more cell numbers in hindgut. Thus, dMats was critical to control stem cell proliferation in midgut as well as in hindgut. Our results implicated an important regulatory role for Hippo pathway in the regulation of adult stem cell proliferation.