Control of daughter cell fates during asymmetric division: interaction of Numb and Notch.

During development of the Drosophila peripheral nervous system, a sensory organ precursor (SOP) cell undergoes rounds of asymmetric divisions to generate four distinct cells of a sensory organ. Numb, a membrane-associated protein, is asymmetrically segregated into one daughter cell during SOP division and acts as an inherited determinant of cell ...
fate. Here, we show that Notch, a transmembrane receptor mediated cell-cell communication, functions as a binary switch in cell fate specification during asymmetric divisions of the SOP and its daughter cells in embryogenesis. Moreover, numb negatively regulates Notch, probably through direct protein-protein interaction that requires the phosphotyrosine-binding (PTB) domain of Numb and either the RAM23 region or the very C-terminal end of Notch. Notch then positively regulates a transcription factor encoded by tramtrack (ttk). This leads to Ttk expression in the daughter cell that does not inherit Numb. Thus, the inherited determinant Numb bestows a bias in the machinery for cell-cell communication to allow the specification of distinct daughter cell fates.
Mesh Terms:
Animals, Cell Differentiation, Cell Line, Drosophila, Drosophila Proteins, Embryonic and Fetal Development, Female, Juvenile Hormones, Male, Membrane Proteins, Receptors, Notch, Sense Organs, Stem Cells, Transcription Factors
Neuron
Date: Jul. 01, 1996
Download Curated Data For This Publication
13914
Switch View:
  • Interactions 5