Size matters! Aurora A controls Drosophila larval development

• Published in: Developmental biology 2018-08, Vol.440 (2), p.88-98
• Main Authors: Vaufrey, Lucie, Balducci, Christine, Lafont, René, Prigent, Claude, Le Bras, Stéphanie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Aurora A kinase; Aurora Kinase A - genetics; Aurora Kinase A - metabolism; Aurora Kinase A - physiology; Brain - metabolism; Cell Cycle Proteins - metabolism; Cell Differentiation; Cell Division - physiology; Drosophila; Drosophila - embryology; Drosophila - metabolism; Drosophila Proteins - genetics; Drosophila Proteins - metabolism; Drosophila Proteins - physiology; Genetic Pleiotropy - genetics; Genetics; Larva - metabolism; Larva - physiology; Larval development coordination; Life Sciences; Loss of Function Mutation - genetics; Neural Stem Cells - metabolism; Neurogenesis - physiology; Neurons - metabolism; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - physiology; Spindle Apparatus - metabolism
• ISSN: 0012-1606; 1095-564X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2018.05.005

In metazoans, organisms arising from a fertilized egg, the embryo will develop through multiple series of cell divisions, both symmetric and asymmetric, leading to differentiation. Aurora A is a serine threonine kinase highly involved in such divisions. While intensively studied at the cell biology level, its function in the development of a whole organism has been neglected. Here we investigated the pleiotropic effect of Aurora A loss-of-function in Drosophila larval early development. We report that Aurora A is required for proper larval development timing control through direct and indirect means. In larval tissues, Aurora A is required for proper symmetric division rate and eventually development speed as we observed in central brain, wing disc and ring gland. Moreover, Aurora A inactivation induces a reduction of ecdysteroids levels and a pupariation delay as an indirect consequence of ring gland development deceleration. Finally, although central brain development is initially restricted, we confirmed that brain lobe size eventually increases due to additive phenotypes: delayed pupariation and over-proliferation of cells with an intermediate cell-identity between neuroblast and ganglion mother cell resulting from defective asymmetric neuroblast cell division. [Display omitted] •AurA indirectly controls Drosophila larval development coordination.•Loss of aurA decreases larval tissue development speed.•Loss of aurA affects ring gland development speed, which in turns decreases ecdysteroids production.•Enlarged central brain in aurA mutants results from both pupariation delay and over-proliferation of pseudo-neuroblasts.