Systemic orchestration of cell size throughout the body: influence of sex and rapamycin exposure in Drosophila melanogaster

Along with differences in life histories, metazoans have also evolved vast differences in cellularity, involving changes in the molecular pathways controlling the cell cycle. The extent to which the signalling network systemically determines cellular composition throughout the body and whether tissu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology letters (2005) 2023-03, Vol.19 (3), p.20220611
Main Authors: Szlachcic, Ewa, Labecka, Anna Maria, Privalova, Valeriya, Sikorska, Anna, Czarnoleski, Marcin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Body Size
Cell Size
Drosophila melanogaster - genetics
Drosophila Proteins - genetics
Drosophila Proteins - metabolism
Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Female
Insulins - metabolism
Male
Sirolimus - metabolism
Sirolimus - pharmacology
TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics
TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases - metabolism
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Summary:Along with differences in life histories, metazoans have also evolved vast differences in cellularity, involving changes in the molecular pathways controlling the cell cycle. The extent to which the signalling network systemically determines cellular composition throughout the body and whether tissue cellularity is organized locally to match tissue-specific functions are unclear. We cultured genetic lines of on food with and without rapamycin to manipulate the activity of target of rapamycin (TOR)/insulin pathways and evaluate cell-size changes in five types of adult cells: wing and leg epidermal cells, ommatidial cells, indirect flight muscle cells and Malpighian tubule epithelial cells. Rapamycin blocks TOR multiprotein complex 1, reducing cell growth, but this effect has been studied in single cell types. As adults, rapamycin-treated flies had smaller bodies and consistently smaller cells in all tissues. Regardless, females eclosed with larger bodies and larger cells in all tissues than males. Thus, differences in TOR activity and sex were associated with the orchestration of cell size throughout the body, leading to differences in body size. We postulate that the activity of TOR/insulin pathways and their effects on cellularity should be considered when investigating the origin of ecological and evolutionary patterns in life histories.
ISSN:1744-957X
1744-9561
1744-957X
DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0611