Genetic dissection of programmed cell senescence and its application for cancer regulation

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14606
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Tumor biology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Igaki Tatsushi 京都大学, 生命科学研究科, 教授 (00467648)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞老化 / 器官発生

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Despite the extensive studies on the mechanism of cellular senescence, its physiological role has still been elusive. In this study, we discovered that developmentally programmed cellular senescence occurs in Drosophila imaginal epithelium. Intriguingly, we found that these senescent cells co-localized with proneural clusters, which develop into the sensory organ ‘campaniform sensilla’ in the dorsal radius of adult wing. To understand the role of programmed cell senescence in wing development, we searched for cellular signaling that can block cellular senescence. Interestingly, we found that forced activation of wingless (Wg) signaling strongly suppressed SA-β-gal activity as well as cell cycle arrest in the senescent cell cluster. This suppression of programmed cell senescence resulted in morphological defects in the campaniform sensilla. Our data indicate that developmentally induced cellular senescence facilitates proper development of sensory organs in Drosophila wing.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学、発生遺伝学