果蝇神经干细胞不对称分裂研究进展

Mechanisms of Asymmetric Cell Division in Drosophila Neuroblasts

干细胞最大的特点是既能自我更新维持自身的数量,又能分化产生不同类型的细胞后代以构建正常的组织器官。干细胞通过不对称有丝分裂实现这种性能。不对称分裂使其中一个子细胞继承干细胞特性,另一个子细胞则分化产生特定类型的细胞。果蝇神经干细胞是研究不对称分裂机制的理想系统。这篇综述主要阐述近年来在果蝇神经干细胞不对称分裂机制研究中所取得的一些突破性进展,并且讨论了不对称分裂缺陷与肿瘤发生之间的关系。

The most notable characteristics of stem cells are self-renewal and differentiation into multiple cell types. To achieve this balance, stem cells have the potential to divide asymmetrically. After asymmetric divi- sion, one daughter cell maintains stem cell identity but the other one is able to differentiate into specific cell type. Drosophila neuroblast is an ideal system to study stem cell asymmetric division. In this review, we mainly focus on the breakthrough of Drosophila neuroblasts asymmetric division mechanism in recent years, and discuss the con- nection between the defective in asymmetric division and tumorigenesis.