Prickle and spiny-legs isoforms of the prickle locus control the direction of tissue planar polarization through both microtubule dependent and independent mechanisms

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
Planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling directs the alignment of cells within the plane of the tissue perpendicular to the apicobasal axis. In PCP signaling in flies, a group of proteins known as the core module polarizes each cell and communicates that polarity to neighboring cells to create local areas of alignment. Alone, the core module has no mechanism for sensing the axis of the tissue; however, the core module may be able to interpret global directional signals that can specify tissue axes including those from Fat, Dachsous, and Four-jointed. Identifying and understanding the mechanistic links between these global and core signals is an important goal in the field of PCP signaling. The prickle locus in flies produces multiple protein isoforms including Prickle (Pk) and Spiny-legs (Sple). Pk and Sple are part of the core module, but they are required in mutually exclusive tissues. Further, swapping which isoform is expressed in a given tissue reverses the direction of tissue polarity. This makes Pk and Sple interesting candidates for molecules that could allow the core module to interpret tissue wide signals thereby linking the direction of core module polarization to the tissue axis. Here, I use the developing wing and abdominal epithelia of the fly as model systems to investigate the cell biological mechanisms underlying the ability of Pk and Sple to determine the direction of tissue polarization. I show that in some tissues Pk and Sple specify the direction of tissue polarity by differentially controlling the polarity of an apical microtubule (MT) network. In other tissues, Pk and Sple control the direction of tissue polarity without affecting MT polarity. I explore the tissue-wide signals that provide directional cues in all of these tissues and discuss both MT dependent and independent mechanisms that Pk and Sple may use to interpret various global signals.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic; electronic resource; remote
Extent 1 online resource.
Publication date 2015
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Associated with Sharp, Katherine Ann
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Genetics.
Primary advisor Axelrod, Jeffrey (Jeffrey David)
Thesis advisor Axelrod, Jeffrey (Jeffrey David)
Thesis advisor Fuller, Margaret T, 1951-
Thesis advisor Lipsick, Joseph Steven, 1955-
Thesis advisor Stearns, Tim
Advisor Fuller, Margaret T, 1951-
Advisor Lipsick, Joseph Steven, 1955-
Advisor Stearns, Tim

Subjects

Genre Theses

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Katherine Ann Sharp.
Note Submitted to the Department of Genetics.
Thesis Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2015 by Katherine Ann Sharp
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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