| Description |
The intestine is a self-renewing organ under constant stress. It is the first line of defense against toxins and bacteria and enables digestion and nutrient absorption. Its homeostasis (controlled regulation) plays a critical role in the maintenance of organ function and prevention of tumor generation. Eyes-shut (eys) is an extracellular protein conserved from Drosophila to humans that plays a role in the eye and the nervous system formation and function (Cook et al., 2008) (Husain et al., 2006). While the role of eys is well known in these organs, it has never been studied in the intestine. Normally, eys is not expressed in the intestine. However, data from Dr. Bruce Edgar's lab has shown that after intestinal stress, eys' RNA is upregulated, suggesting a possible function in stress-induced intestinal regeneration. Hence, we investigated its role in the intestine together with rumi and prominin (prom), known partner of eys in the eye. Rumi O-glucosylates eys to regulate its secretion and stability, while prom is a transmembrane receptor that binds to eys to promote cellular integrity (Gurudev et al., 2014) (Cook et al., 2008). We have shown that eys and rumi are required for proper intestinal homeostasis. However, eys is not sufficient to produce an intestinal response when simply overexpressed. Further studies are needed to determine if rumi is sufficient to induce intestinal stress-response when overexpressed and if prom is required/sufficient for intestinal regeneration. The investigation into eys and its partners is crucial to understanding cellular regeneration of the intestine and could help devise new therapeutic strategies for gastrointestinal diseases or cancers. |
