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Title Investigation of tumor growth mechanisms and the interaction with tracheal and hematopoietic system in Drosophila
Author Μελιγκουνάκη, Αναστασία
Thesis advisor Δελιδάκης, Χρήστος
Abstract Drosophila melanogaster is a widely used genetic model organism, with characteristics that enable scientists to study complex pathways involved in biomedical research, including cancer. Notch signaling pathway is one the most commonly deregulated pathways in various diseases and cancer. Notch is a key player in Drosophila brain development and its ectopic over-activation can lead to tumorigenesis with dramatic results. Transcriptomic data from previous work in our lab has shown that after allografting Notch induced brain tumors into adult flies, various genes get up- or down- regulated as the tumor progresses to a more aggressive state. It has been indicated that the tracheal system, the analog of the respiratory system in mammals, plays important role in tumor growth and metastasis (Grifoni et al., 2015, Tamamouna 2021). In the transcriptomic analysis one of the genes that was found upregulated in the most aggressive tumor stage was branchless. Branchless encodes a Drosophila FGF homolog which is important for tracheal cell migration and branching (Sutherland et al., 1996). Considering the above results, our study attempts to clarify the interplay between tumor and the tracheal system in adult Drosophila with a focus on the FGF/FGFR homologs, branchless and breathless. As tumor progresses over time, another gene that gets upregulated is Tep4. Tep4 is a thioester-containing protein which is involved in immune responses in Drosophila and other insects by promoting recruitment of immune cells in response to infections (Shokal & Eleytherianos, 2017). In this work, we examine the expression of Tep4 in the larval and adult stages and we try to define the differential expression pattern upon tumorigenic conditions. Finally, guided by the transcriptomic data along with immunohistochemistry, we have observed that Drosophila blood cells respond to allografted tumors. Here we wanted to investigate the response of the larval hemocytes in the primary brain hyperplasia by examining the proliferation rate of hemocytes and their differentiation into distinct subtypes.
Language English
Issue date 2022-03-28
Collection   School/Department--School of Sciences and Engineering--Department of Biology--Graduate theses
  Type of Work--Graduate theses
Permanent Link https://elocus.lib.uoc.gr//dlib/e/9/5/metadata-dlib-user1653552020-30962.tkl Bookmark and Share
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