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Nature 454, 592-593 (31 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/454592a; Published online 30 July 2008

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Developmental biology: Our fly cousins' gut

Chrysoula Pitsouli1 & Norbert Perrimon1

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What do we humans have in common with flies? Quite a lot, at least at the cellular and molecular levels. Our intestine, for instance, is similar to that of the fly, not only in function but also in its development and maintenance.

Epithelial cells lining the intestine become damaged by ingested food, pathogens and toxins, and so must be constantly renewed. Intestinal stem cells compensate for the loss of these cells by producing all of the mature intestinal epithelial cell types1, and an imbalance in this process can lead to diseases such as cancer2.

  1. Chrysoula Pitsouli and Norbert Perrimon are in the Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
    Email: perrimon@receptor.med.harvard.edu

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