This report describes a tracheal model of angiogenesis in Drsoophila. Analysis of the tracheal changes occurring during tumorigenesis in Drosophila larval epithelia (see FBhh0000588) has shown that they are closely related to the vascular modifications seen in mammalian cancers, including sprouting angiogenesis, intussusceptive angiogenesis, vascular co-option, and vascular mimicry.
Many of the same molecular mechanisms known to respond to hypoxic stress in mammalian cancers are observed, including translocation of sima, the Drosophila ortholog of HIFA (hypoxia inducible factor), into the nucleus. Increased expression of bnl, which encodes a fibroblast growth factor analogous to vascular endothelial growth factors in human, results; cancer cells expressing trh, a transcription factor and tracheal determinant, are observed.
[updated Feb. 2018 by FlyBase; FBrf0222196]
Moderate- to high-scoring ortholog of human HIF1A, EPAS1, and HIF3A (1 Drosophila to 3 human).
Low-scoring ortholog of multiple fibroblast growth factors in human (1 Drosophila to many human). There are several other fibroblast growth factors in Drosophila, but they do not exhibit similarity to known human genes.
High-scoring ortholog of human NPAS1 and NPAS3 (1 Drosophila to 2 human).