DE-cadherin (green) sticks GSCs (dark red and blue) to cap cells (bright red).

Xie/AAAS

Stem cells exist in a number of adult tissues, but the molecular requirements for keeping them in place and undifferentiated are not clear. Now, Xiaoqing Song, Ting Xie (Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO), and colleagues find that, in the Drosophila ovary, the adhesion proteins DE-cadherin and Armadillo work together to recruit and keep the germline stem cells (GSCs) in their niche.

The proteins mediate adhesion between germ cells and follicle cells in the ovary, so Xie reasoned that they might be involved in anchoring the GSCs to cells at the distal tip of the ovary, called cap cells. Sure enough, DE-cadherin and Armadillo proteins colocalize in narrow strips between the cap cells and the GSCs.

Genetics suggests that this localization reflects function. Within one week of inducing expression...

The Rockefeller University Press
2002
The Rockefeller University Press
2002
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