Reference Report

Reference
Citation	Wang, H., Somers, G.W., Bashirullah, A., Heberlein, U., Yu, F., Chia, W. (2006). Aurora-A acts as a tumor suppressor and regulates self-renewal of Drosophila neuroblasts. Genes Dev. 20(24): 3453--3463. (Export to RIS)
FlyBase ID	FBrf0194325
Publication Type	Research paper
PubMed ID	17182870
PubMed Abstract	The choice of self-renewal versus differentiation is a fundamental issue in stem cell and cancer biology. Neural progenitors of the Drosophila post-embryonic brain, larval neuroblasts (NBs), divide asymmetrically in a stem cell-like fashion to generate a self-renewing NB and a Ganglion Mother Cell (GMC), which divides terminally to produce two differentiating neuronal/glial daughters. Here we show that Aurora-A (AurA) acts as a tumor suppressor by suppressing NB self-renewal and promoting neuronal differentiation. In aurA loss-of-function mutants, supernumerary NBs are produced at the expense of neurons. AurA suppresses tumor formation by asymmetrically localizing atypical protein kinase C (aPKC), an NB proliferation factor. Numb, which also acts as a tumor suppressor in larval brains, is a major downstream target of AurA and aPKC. Notch activity is up-regulated in aurA and numb larval brains, and Notch signaling is necessary and sufficient to promote NB self-renewal and suppress differentiation in larval brains. Our data suggest that AurA, aPKC, Numb, and Notch function in a pathway that involved a series of negative genetic interactions. We have identified a novel mechanism for controlling the balance between self-renewal and neuronal differentiation during the asymmetric division of Drosophila larval NBs.
DOI	10.1101/gad.1487506
Related Publication(s)
Recent Updates
Description	What does this section display? This section contains items that were added to this record for each release. It currently only tracks new links between this FlyBase report and other FlyBase data classes (e.g. genes, references, stocks) or controlled vocabulary terms (e.g. GO, anatomy terms). What does this section not display? This section does not currently display links that were removed or gene model changes.
Update Feed	Click the icon below to subscribe to this FlyBase record and receive updates automatically through your feed reader.
FB2013_03
FB2013_02
All updates	Click here to see a list of all updates to this record from FB2010_08 and on.
Associated Information
Comments
Associated Files
Other Information
Secondary IDs
Language of Publication	English
Additional Languages of Abstract
Also Published As
Parent Publication
Publication Type	Journal
Abbreviation	Genes Dev.
Title	Genes & Development
Publication Year	1987-
ISBN/ISSN	0890-9369
Data from Reference
Alleles (20)
	aPKC^{CAAXWT.Scer\UAS} aPKC^unspecified aur^87Ac-5 aur⁸⁸³⁹ aur¹⁴⁶⁴¹ aur¹⁷⁹⁶¹ aur^{Scer\UAS.T:Avic\GFP-S65T} aur^unspecified brat¹¹ CycE^Scer\UAS.cRa dap^Scer\UAS.cLa Ecol\lacZ^{Scer\UAS.T:SV40\nls2} N^ICN.Scer\UAS N^l1N-ts1 numb¹⁵ numb^{PTB.Scer\UAS.T:Avic\GFP} Scer\GAL4^Act5C.PI Scer\GAL4^{Scer\FRT.Act5C} Scer\GAL4^wor.PA spdo^Scer\UAS.cOa
Constructs (9)
	P{AyGAL4} P{UAS-aPKC.CAAXWT} P{UAS-aur.GFP} P{UAS-CycE.R} P{UAS-dap.L} P{UAS-lacZ.NZ} P{UAS-N.ICN} P{UAS-numb.PTB.GFP} P{UAS-spdo.O}
Genes (21)
	aPKC aur baz brat cnn CycE dap dm dpn Ecol\lacZ elav His3 insc mira mud N numb pon pros Scer\GAL4 spdo
Natural transposons (1)
	P-element