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Keeping your cell identity

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 15, pages 296–297 (2014)Cite this article

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The authors analysed adult testes, which contain post-mitotic cyst cells and at the tip of testes two other types of somatic cells (hub cells and cyst stem cells (CySCs)) that interact with the germline stem cells (GSCs). They observed that when flies that carry a temperature-sensitive allele of E(z) in trans to a null allele of E(z) were moved to the restrictive temperature, the number of cells expressing the zinc-finger homeodomain protein 1 (Zfh1), which marks CySCs and early cyst cells, increased in ∼20% of testes.

The authors observed that such cells, which are mitotically active, were located in the basal regions of the testes. Interestingly, they found that basal regions also contained ectopically dividing germ cells, as well as some cells that express both Vasa (a germ cell marker) and Zfh1, which suggests a mixed cellular fate. To identify the cell of origin of such mixed fate cells and of Zfh1-positive cells, the authors carried out lineage-tracing experiments using a GFP transgene that marks GSCs and their progeny. These experiments revealed that germ cells give rise to Vasa-positive and Zfh1-positive cells, which ultimately give rise to Zfh1-expressing cells without Vasa.

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References

  1. Eun, S. H. et al. A non-cell autonomous role of E(z) to prevent germ cells from turning on somatic cell marker. Science 343, 1513–1516 (2014)

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  1. Kim Baumann
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Richardson, B. E. & Lehmann, R. Mechanisms guiding primordial germ cell migration: strategies from different organisms. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 11, 37–49 (2010)

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Baumann, K. Keeping your cell identity. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 15, 296–297 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3794

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