Asymmetric cell division is critical during development, as it influences processes such as cell fate specification and cell migration. We have characterized FRK-1, a homologue of the mammalian Fer non-receptor tyrosine kinase, and found it to be required for differentiation and maintenance of epithelial cell types, including the stem cell-like seam cells of the hypodermis. A genomic knockout of frk-1, allele ok760, results in severely uncoordinated larvae that arrest at the L1 stage and have an excess number of lateral hypodermal cells which appear to have lost asymmetry in the stem cell-like divisions of the seam cell lineage. frk-1(ok760) mutants show that there are excess lateral hypodermal cells which are abnormally shaped and smaller in size compared to wildtype; a defect which could only be rescued in a manner dependent on the kinase activity of FRK-1. Additionally, we observed a significant change in the expression of heterochronic regulators in frk-1(ok760) mutants. However, frk-1(ok760) mutants do not express late, non-seam hypodermal GFP markers suggesting the seam cells do not precociously differentiate as adult-hyp7 cells. Finally, our data also demonstrate a clear role for FRK-1 in seam cell proliferation, as eliminating FRK-1 during the L3-L4 transition results in supernumerary seam cell nuclei that is dependent on asymmetric Wnt signaling. Specifically, we observe aberrant POP-1 and WRM-1 localization that is dependent on the presence of FRK-1 and APR-1. Overall, our data suggest a requirement for FRK-1 in maintaining the identity and proliferation of seam cells primarily through an interaction with the asymmetric Wnt pathway.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 August 2016.
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Altmetric has tracked 28,833,811 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
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