昆虫Hippo信号通路研究概述

Research Summary on the Hippo Signaling Pathway in Insects

Hippo信号通路是最早于果蝇(Drosophila melanogaster)中发现的一条调控器官大小的重要信号转导通路,昆虫、哺乳动物等多细胞生物中均存在此信号通路且在进化上高保守。Hippo通路不仅通过调节细胞增殖与凋亡精确控制着器官大小,亦参与调控干细胞自我更新及组织再生,并与多种人类肿瘤的发生密切相关。近10年来,基于果蝇模式的Hippo通路研究一直十分活跃并获得丰硕成果,此外,在家蚕(Bombyx mori)、棉铃虫(Heliothis armigera)等几种昆虫中也报道了相关结果。这些研究和成果显著增进了人们对Hippo通路的了解,不但有助于阐释Hippo通路调控器官大小的分子机制,而且对与之相关的人类肿瘤的治疗也具有重要指导意义。本文简要概述了昆虫Hippo通路的主要发现和研究进展,以期为以昆虫为模式的Hippo通路研究提供参考。

The Hippo signaling pathway,originally discovered in Drosophila,is a pivotal signal transduction pathway in controlling organ size. It exists in multicellular organisms including insects and mammals and appears to be highly conserved during evolution. The Hippo pathway not only precisely controls organ size in organisms through regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis,but also participates in regulating stem cell self-renewal and tissue regeneration,and correlates closely with the occurrence of a variety of human tumors. In the past decade,studying Drosophila Hippo pathway has been an active area and fruitful achievements have been achieved in this model insect. Some findings were also achieved in a fewinsects such as Bombyx mori and Heliothis armigera. These efforts and results greatly improved our understanding of the Hippo pathway,and are not only helpful for clarifying the molecular mechanism of Hippo pathway in organ size control,but also of important guiding significance for the treatment of Hippo-related human tumors. This reviewbriefly summarizes the main findings and research progress on the Hippo pathway in insects,which would provide references for the study of Hippo pathway of insect models.