The Drosophila adult midgut progenitor cells (AMPs) give rise to all cells in the adult midgut epithelium, including the intestinal stem cells (ISCs). While they share many characteristics with the ISCs, it remains unclear how they are generated in the early embryo. Here, we show that they arise from a population of endoderm cells, which exhibit multiple similarities with Drosophila neuroblasts. These cells, which we have termed endoblasts, are patterned by homothorax (Hth) and undergo asymmetric divisions using the same molecular machinery as neuroblasts. We also show that the conservation of this molecular machinery extends to the generation of the enteroendocrine lineages. Parallels have previously been drawn between the pupal ISCs and larval neuroblasts. Our results suggest that these commonalities exist from the earliest stages of specification of progenitor cells of the intestinal and nervous systems and may represent an ancestral pathway for multipotent progenitor cell specification.

中文翻译：

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果蝇成体中肠祖细胞起源于神经母细胞样细胞的不对称分裂


果蝇成年中肠祖细胞 （AMP） 产生成人中肠上皮中的所有细胞，包括肠道干细胞 （ISC）。虽然它们与 ISC 有许多共同特征，但目前尚不清楚它们是如何在早期胚胎中产生的。在这里，我们表明它们来自一个内胚层细胞群，这些细胞群与果蝇神经母细胞表现出多种相似性。这些细胞，我们称之为内胚层，由同胸 （Hth） 模式化，并使用与神经母细胞相同的分子机制进行不对称分裂。我们还表明，这种分子机制的守恒延伸到肠内分泌谱系的产生。以前在蛹 ISC 和幼虫神经母细胞之间进行了相似之处。我们的结果表明，这些共性从肠道和神经系统祖细胞规范的最早阶段就存在，并且可能代表了多能祖细胞规范的祖先途径。