2. Academic Validation
  3. Elevated levels of Drosophila Wdr62 promote glial cell growth and proliferation through AURKA signalling to AKT and MYC

Elevated levels of Drosophila Wdr62 promote glial cell growth and proliferation through AURKA signalling to AKT and MYC

  • Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Res. 2020 Jul;1867(7):118713. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2020.118713.
Belal Shohayeb 1,  Naomi Mitchell 2,  S Sean Millard 1,  Leonie M Quinn 2,  Dominic C H Ng 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia.
  • 2 ACRF Department of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 260, Australia.
  • 3 School of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 32246948 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2020.118713
Abstract

WD40-Repeat Protein 62 (WDR62) is required to maintain neural and glial cell populations during embryonic brain growth. Although elevated expression of WDR62 is frequently associated with several tumour types, potential effects of excess WDR62 on proliferative growth remain undefined. Here, we demonstrate that glia specific overexpression of WDR62 in Drosophila larval brains resulted in increased cell size, over-proliferation and increased brain volume, without overt disruption of tissue organization. We further demonstrate WDR62 promoted over-proliferation and brain overgrowth by activating AURKA and pAKT signalling to increase MYC function in glial cells. Together these data suggest WDR62 normally functions in the glial lineage to activate oncogenic signalling networks, promoting proliferation and brain overgrowth.

Keywords

Cell growth; Cell proliferation; Glia; MYC; Signal transduction; WD40 domains.

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