| Abstract |
Glial cells have various functions such as guiding axon growth, supporting neuron, taking up neurotransmitters, and forming a blood-brain barrier. However, little is known about the mechanisms for regulating their population. Because Drosophila glial cells are highly similar to human glial cells in function and morphology, studying Drosophila glial cells is important in understanding the human nervous system. I characterized a novel Drosophila gene, CG11426 which is expressed in glia. CG11426 encodes lipid phosphate phosphatase (LPP). The known Drosophila LPP, Wunens are involved in germ cell migration and survival, and septate junction formation during tracheal development. In this study, I characterized a function of a new gene encoding Drosophila LPP, CG11426, which regulates glial cell population in the eye imaginal disc. The suppression of the CG11426 gene increased glial cell number while the ectopic expression of CG11426 gene reduced glial cell number in the eye imaginal disc. Also, I observed that CG11426 gene normally promotes apoptosis and inhibits ERK signaling in the eye imaginal disc. Moreover, a mutation in CG11426 gene caused defects in axon projection to the optic lobe in the larval eye-brain complexes and disruption of brain cortex in adult flies. Thus, the results in this study demonstrate that CG11426 gene negatively regulates ERK signaling to promote apoptosis and eventually maintains an appropriate glial population.
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