Exploring early stages of Tumorigenesis in Drosophila

Venue: Edificio Povo 1, via Sommarive nr. 5, Povo (Tn) - Room Levico
 At 11.00 p.m.

• Hugo Stocker - Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

We exploit Drosophila genetics to mimic early stages of tumor formation in imaginal discs. Our previous work has revealed that clones of cells lacking the tumor suppressor Pten gain a proliferative advantage under limiting food conditions. This happens at the expense of the wild-type tissue, reminiscent of cancer cachexia. However, we also noticed that a substantial fraction of the Pten clones gets eliminated from the imaginal discs. I will present our attempts to identify the signals triggering apoptosis in Pten clones, with special emphases on TNF signaling and on a splicing factor that plays a key role in the survival of Pten clones.