Browsing by Subject "midgut"

Animals regulate their metabolism dynamically as a response to changes in nutritional landscape. Intestine is emerging as a key regulator of systemic metabolism. It possesses secretory enteroendocrine cells (EECs), which have a central role in intestinal nutrient sensing and signaling. However, how the number and function of EECs is regulated in response to nutrients remains poorly understood. Previous work in Hietakangas lab has shown that a transcriptional cofactor, C-terminal binding protein (CtBP), regulates the number of EECs in response to sugar feeding and loss of CtBP function in EECs causes sugar intolerance in Drosophila. CtBP’s transcriptional activity is modulated through homodimerization, which is controlled by redox coenzyme NAD+/NADH, whose levels are dependent on sugar metabolism. Therefore, I hypothesise that CtBP is a sugar- and redox-responsive regulator of EEC function. In this thesis, I aimed to understand how CtBP is regulated and what are its downstream effectors. My results show that the formation of CtBP homodimers is responsive to dietary sugars and cellular redox state. In addition, I observed that CtBP heterodimerizes with EEC fate determining transcription factor Prospero. Functional analysis of CtBP downstream effector genes shows significant overlap with those of Prospero. In conclusion, CtBP is a sugar- and redox-responsive cellular regulator of EEC function, which acts in cooperation with Prospero.

The intestinal stem cells (ISC) are responsible for the regeneration of the intestine epithelial barrier after acute injury and for the replenishment of its cells overall. How the ISC activation and resulting proliferation is controlled is complex and still under study. The ISCs of the midgut, which is the functional analogue to mammalian small intestine, are also highly responsive to changes in nutrition, and with proper methodologies it is possible to study the effects of diet on stem cell activation. The metabolic flux of the nutritional components of the diet can then shed light on which metabolic pathways are necessary for nutrient-dependent proliferation. One nutrient that has garnered interest is glutamine (Gln). It is well established that glutamine supplementation can in parenterally fed patients diminish intestinal barrier atrophy, extend the time the patient can be kept under the regime, and increase survivability of critically ill patients. Consequently, glutamine or its downstream metabolites may have stem cell activating characteristics. However, the exact regulatory mechanisms and specific effects of Gln are not well known, and studies have found contradictory results on the beneficial effects of Gln supplementation. Glutamine itself is a conditionally essential amino acid that has a variety of functions: it is an important source of nitrogen and cellular energy and contributes carbon into the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) and is involved in protein and nucleotide synthesis. In this thesis, the effects of Gln supplementation on the cell populations of D. melanogaster were studied via microscopy and computational analysis. Cross-breeds of fruit fly were established to lineage label the ISC with a GAL4/UAS driver system. Confocal microscope was used to image the midguts which were then analysed with Imaris software. A novel analysis method was developed to study population changes and varying features of the cells in the midgut in an unprecedented region-by-region bulk analysis. Earlier studies into nutrient control of ISC have had limited focus within the midgut and might have consequently given a restricted view of ISC activation. This new Longitudinal Analysis of Midgut (LAM) can be utilized in a diverse set of further studies to describe conditional variation within midgut, and possibly other tissues. Gln was found to increase total cell numbers to comparable levels with well-fed midguts, and to drive limited endoreplication in enterocytes. Lineage labelled cell population grew primarily in the R3 and R4 regions of the midgut. Additionally, enteroendocrine cells (EE) were greatly increased in the posterior part of R3 but had conceivable minor increases along the whole length of the midgut. Improved nutrition was also found to affect the proportions of the midgut, presenting itself as elongated posterior and stunted anterior. Overall, the pipeline and analysis method established during this study enable more expeditious research of effects of other nutritional components and allows for study of effects of other mechanisms, for example how gene knock-downs or altered gene activities affect cell populations of the midgut.