Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Irene Miguel-Aliaga

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction

Professor of Genetics and Physiology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 3383 3907i.miguel-aliaga Website

 
 
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Location

 

232ICTEM buildingHammersmith Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Hudry:2016:10.1038/nature16953,
author = {Hudry, B and Khadayate, S and Miguel-Aliaga, I},
doi = {10.1038/nature16953},
journal = {Nature},
pages = {344--348},
title = {The sexual identity of adult intestinal stem cells controls organ size and plasticity},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16953},
volume = {530},
year = {2016}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Sex differences in physiology and disease susceptibility are commonly attributed to developmental and/or hormonal factors, but there is increasing realization that cell-intrinsic mechanisms play important and persistent roles. Here we use the Drosophila melanogaster intestine to investigate the nature and importance of cellular sex in an adult somatic organ in vivo. We find that the adult intestinal epithelium is a cellular mosaic of different sex differentiation pathways, and displays extensive sex differences in expression of genes with roles in growth and metabolism. Cell-specific reversals of the sexual identity of adult intestinal stem cells uncovers the key role this identity has in controlling organ size, reproductive plasticity and response to genetically induced tumours. Unlike previous examples of sexually dimorphic somatic stem cell activity, the sex differences in intestinal stem cell behaviour arise from intrinsic mechanisms that control cell cycle duration and involve a new doublesex- and fruitless-independent branch of the sex differentiation pathway downstream of transformer. Together, our findings indicate that the plasticity of an adult somatic organ is reversibly controlled by its sexual identity, imparted by a new mechanism that may be active in more tissues than previously recognized.
AU  - Hudry,B
AU  - Khadayate,S
AU  - Miguel-Aliaga,I
DO  - 10.1038/nature16953
EP  - 348
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 1476-4687
SP  - 344
TI  - The sexual identity of adult intestinal stem cells controls organ size and plasticity
T2  - Nature
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16953
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16953
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/30013
VL  - 530
ER  -
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