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RhoL controls invasion and Rap1 localization during immune cell transmigration in Drosophila

Nature Cell Biology volume 12, pages 605–610 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Human immune cells have to penetrate an endothelial barrier during their beneficial pursuit of infection and their destructive infiltration of tissues in autoimmune diseases. This transmigration requires Rap1 GTPase to activate integrin affinity1. We define a new model system for this process by demonstrating, with live imaging and genetics, that during embryonic development Drosophila melanogaster immune cells penetrate an epithelial, Drosophila E-cadherin (DE-cadherin)-based tissue barrier. A mutant in RhoL, a GTPase homologue that is specifically expressed in haemocytes, blocks this invasive step but not other aspects of guided migration. RhoL mediates integrin adhesion caused by Drosophila Rap1 overexpression and moves Rap1 away from a concentration in the cytoplasm to the leading edge during invasive migration. These findings indicate that a programmed migratory step during Drosophila development bears striking molecular similarities to vertebrate immune cell transmigration during inflammation, and identify RhoL as a new regulator of invasion, adhesion and Rap1 localization. Our work establishes the utility of Drosophila for identifying novel components of immune cell transmigration and for understanding the in vivo interplay of immune cells with the barriers they penetrate.

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Figure 1: Drosophila immune cells move into the tail during development by penetrating an epithelial barrier and carrying out chain migration.
Figure 2: Identification of the gene, rhoL, which is expressed in haemocytes and required to permit migration into the tail.
Figure 3: RhoL does not affect haemocyte actin structures or guidance, but is required to penetrate a cadherin-containing barrier for migration into the tail.
Figure 4: The Rap1 GEF Dizzy and the α-integrin Inflated are required for tail invasion.
Figure 5: RhoL is required for Rap1 to induce adhesion and relocalize from an intracellular cluster to the cell surface in haemocytes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Jukam, P. Kunwar, A-M. Sudarov, and S. Wang for help during the GAL4 enhancer screen, and D. Demy for input. We thank all the people who shared their reagents: U. Heberlein, K. Brueckner, N. Perrimon, D. Montell, R. Reuter and A. Page-McCaw for stocks and T. Uemura, D. Branton, R, Dubreuil, H. Bellen, N. Lowe, D. Ryoo and J. Treisman for antibodies. We thank the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank developed with NICHD support and maintained by the University of Iowa for antibodies and the Bloomington Stock Center for flies. We are grateful for conversations with P. Rangan, P. Kunwar and many other members of the laboratory. We thank M. Dustin, S. Schwab and laboratory members for comments on the manuscript. We thank NICHD for supporting part of this work. R.L. is an investigator of the HHMI.

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  1. Martin Haesemeyer

    Present address: Current address: Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Dr. Bohrgasse 7, A-1030 Vienna, Austria.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology, HHMI and Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine of the Skirball Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, 10016-6481, New York

    Daria Siekhaus, Martin Haesemeyer, Olivia Moffitt & Ruth Lehmann

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Contributions

Project conception and planning were conducted by D.S. with guidance from R.L. D.S. performed and analysed all experiments except the following: M.H. participated in the screen, and produced all the data in Supplementary Information, Fig. S2a, b and d except the production and analysis of the extent of the XA12 excision and O.M. produced Fig. 4c and assisted in staining for Fig. 5h–i. Experimental interpretation was conducted by D.S., M.H. and R.L. The manuscript was written by D.S. and edited by R.L.

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Correspondence to Ruth Lehmann.

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Siekhaus, D., Haesemeyer, M., Moffitt, O. et al. RhoL controls invasion and Rap1 localization during immune cell transmigration in Drosophila. Nat Cell Biol 12, 605–610 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2063

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