Poster #066
JAK/STAT Silencing Boosts Lamellocyte Differentiation Post JNK Activation
Mentors: Bayan Kharrat, Ph.D., Lauren Goins, Ph.D.
The fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) hematopoietic system serves as a simplified yet powerful model for studying blood cell development. Two types of mature blood cells normally exist in the Drosophila larva: macrophage-like plasmatocytes and platelet-like crystal cells. Upon immune challenges, blood cell progenitors and plasmatocytes can give rise to lamellocytes (multinucleated giant-like cells), which encapsulate foreign objects that are too large to be engulfed by plasmatocytes. JNK pathway activation in plasmatocytes can trigger their transdifferentiation into lamellocytes, but the downstream effectors are unclear. In this project, we performed a genetic screen to identify regulators of this process. Our preliminary findings suggest that the JAK/STAT pathway negatively regulates lamellocyte formation downstream of JNK signaling. However, further experiments are needed to confirm these results. As the mechanisms behind multinucleated giant cell formation remain poorly understood in mammals, our work may provide broader insights into their regulation.