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Nature 410, 599-604 (29 March 2001) | doi:10.1038/35069099; Received 27 October 2000; Accepted 8 January 2001

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Hedgehog acts as a somatic stem cell factor in the Drosophila ovary

Yan Zhang & Daniel Kalderon

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA

Correspondence to: Daniel Kalderon Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to D.K. (e-mail: Email: ddk1@columbia.edu).

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Secreted signalling molecules of the Hedgehog (Hh) family have many essential patterning roles during development of diverse organisms including Drosophila and humans1, 2. Although Hedgehog proteins most commonly affect cell fate, they can also stimulate cell proliferation. In humans several distinctive cancers, including basal-cell carcinoma, result from mutations that aberrantly activate Hh signal transduction3. In Drosophila, Hh directly stimulates proliferation of ovarian somatic cells4, 5, 6. Here we show that Hh acts specifically on stem cells in the Drosophila ovary. These cells cannot proliferate as stem cells in the absence of Hh signalling, whereas excessive Hh signalling produces supernumerary stem cells. We deduce that Hh is a stem-cell factor and suggest that human cancers due to excessive Hh signalling might result from aberrant expansion of stem cell pools.