School of Science Division of Life Science 44 Genetic Studies on Stem Cell Regulation Supervisor: XIE Ting / LIFS Student: ZHAO Junhao / BCB-IRE Course: UROP 1000, Summer In the past, it was discovered that the stem cells of Drosophila are regulated by a microenvironment called differentiation niche. The niche is composed of inner germarium sheath cells (IGS cells). We discovered that calcium ions act as a key factor in regulating the differentiation of germline stem cells (GSCs) through transporting across the IGS cells and GSCs. The calcium ions’ concentration changes of IGS cells will lead to the population changes of GSCs and their progenies, which are called cystoblasts (CBs). Here, the concentration changes of calcium are caused by the expression level of several transporters of calcium, which include ITPR, SERCA, and Piezo. We also found that calcium may regulate the proliferation and differentiation of GSC through CAMK2 and its downstream protein called Imp. An overview of the structure of germarium.
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