Slik Sterile-20 kinase regulates Moesin activity to promote epithelial integrity during tissue growth

  1. David R. Hipfner,
  2. Nadine Keller, and
  3. Stephen M. Cohen1
  1. European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract

The Drosophila Sterile-20 kinase Slik promotes tissue growth during development by stimulating cell proliferation and by preventing apoptosis. Proliferation within an epithelial sheet requires dynamic control of cellular architecture. Epithelial integrity fails in slik mutant imaginal discs. Cells leave the epithelium and undergo apoptosis. The abnormal behavior of slik mutant cells is due to failure to phosphorylate and activate Moesin, which leads to excess Rho1 activity. This is distinct from Slik's effects on cell proliferation, which are mediated by Raf. Thus Slik acts via distinct pathways to coordinate cell proliferation with epithelial cell behavior during tissue growth.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.

  • Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.303304.

  • ↵1 Corresponding author. E-MAIL cohen{at}embl.de; FAX 49-6221-387166.

    • Accepted July 20, 2004.
    • Received March 22, 2004.
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  1. doi: 10.1101/gad.303304 Genes & Dev. 2004. 18: 2243-2248 Copyright © 2004, by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

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