Journal article
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase spares organ growth during nutrient restriction in drosophila
LY Cheng, AP Bailey, SJ Leevers, TJ Ragan, PC Driscoll, AP Gould
Cell | CELL PRESS | Published : 2011
Abstract
Developing animals survive periods of starvation by protecting the growth of critical organs at the expense of other tissues. Here, we use Drosophila to explore the as yet unknown mechanisms regulating this privileged tissue growth. As in mammals, we observe in Drosophila that the CNS is more highly spared than other tissues during nutrient restriction (NR). We demonstrate that anaplastic lymphoma kinase (Alk) efficiently protects neural progenitor (neuroblast) growth against reductions in amino acids and insulin-like peptides during NR via two mechanisms. First, Alk suppresses the growth requirement for amino acid sensing via Slimfast/Rheb/TOR complex 1. And second, Alk, rather than insulin..
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Awarded by Cancer Research UK
Funding Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Steve Cohen, Bruce Edgar, Ernst Hafen, Jean-Luc Imler, Pierre Leopold, Fumio Matsuzaki, Tom Neufeld, James Nowick, Ruth Palmer, Linda Partridge, Iris Salecker, Hugo Stocker, Gary Struhl, Nic Tapon, and Tian Xu and also to the Bloomington, Kyoto Drosophila Genetic Resource, and Vienna Drosophila RNAi Centers for fly stocks, antibodies, and chemicals. We also acknowledge Tom Frenkiel and the Biomedical NMR Centre, and Steve Morris, Ruth Palmer, Iris Salecker, Patricia Serpente, Rita Sousa-Nunes, Caroline Vincent, and Joe Weiss for advice and critical reading of the manuscript. L.Y.C., A.B., T.J.R., P.C.D., and A.P.G. are supported by the Medical Research Council (U117584237), and S.J.L. is supported by Cancer Research UK.