There is a clock protecting your gut: a lesson from the fly

A Journal of Postdoctoral Research.

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ISSN : 2328-9791

There is a clock protecting your gut: a lesson from the fly

Francesca Di Cara

University of Alberta

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

dicara@ualberta.ca

On a daily basis, animals are in constant contact with harmful pathogens and/or xenobiotic substances during each meal. Most eukaryotes have evolved highly specialized gut epithelial cells, which defend the organism from damages caused by the ingested hazards. In response to these damages, a population of stem cells regenerates the gut epithelium. These intestinal stem cells (ISCs) proliferate and replace the dying cells (Biteau et al., 2011). The regenerative biology of the gut is essential for survival across the entire animal kingdom. The disclosed mechanisms that drive the regenerative proliferation of ISCs are conserved from flies to humans (Casali and Batlle, 2009). Recent studies of......