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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Hematopoietic plasticity mapped in Drosophila and other insects
Contributor:
Hultmark, Dan;
Andó, István
Published:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2022
Published in:
eLife, 11 (2022)
Language:
English
DOI:
10.7554/elife.78906
ISSN:
2050-084X
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
Hemocytes, similar to vertebrate blood cells, play important roles in insect development and immunity, but it is not well understood how they perform their tasks. New technology, in particular single-cell transcriptomic analysis in combination withDrosophilagenetics, may now change this picture. This review aims to make sense of recently published data, focusing onDrosophila melanogasterand comparing to data from other drosophilids, the malaria mosquito,Anopheles gambiae, and the silkworm,Bombyx mori. Basically, the new data support the presence of a few major classes of hemocytes: (1) a highly heterogenous and plastic class of professional phagocytes with many functions, called plasmatocytes inDrosophilaand granular cells in other insects. (2) A conserved class of cells that control melanin deposition around parasites and wounds, called crystal cells inD. melanogaster, and oenocytoids in other insects. (3) A new class of cells, the primocytes, so far only identified inD. melanogaster. They are related to cells of the so-called posterior signaling center of the larval hematopoietic organ, which controls the hematopoiesis of other hemocytes. (4) Different kinds of specialized cells, like the lamellocytes inD. melanogaster, for the encapsulation of parasites. These cells undergo rapid evolution, and the homology relationships between such cells in different insects are uncertain. Lists of genes expressed in the different hemocyte classes now provide a solid ground for further investigation of function.