[August 30] 54th IRCMS Seminar

August 21 2019

We would like to inform you that the 54th IRCMS Seminar has been scheduled as below. We would be pleased to see many of you participating in the seminar.

Date       : August 30, 2019 (Friday)
Time　    : 16:00-17:00
Venue    : IRCMS 1F Meeting Lounge　
Speaker : BAEG Gyeong Hun, Ph.D.
                 Department of Anatomy,
                 National University of Singapore

Tilte       : Redox homeostasis in the Drosophila testis germline stem cell maintenance

Abstract:

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) act as important signaling molecules required for fundamental biological processes such as stem cell maintenance. However, aberrant ROS levels lead to oxidative stress, which is highly associated with various human diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and aging. Here, we examined the effects of redox states on stem cell maintenance, and identified the downstream effectors of ROS that control stem cell behaviour, using the Drosophila testis germline stem cell (GSC) model. High ROS were found to cause the activation of EGFR signaling, which functions to promote GSC differentiation, leading to a GSC loss. By contrast, low ROS resulted in an over-growth of early-stage germ cells. To further understand the mechanisms utilized by ROS to control GSC behavior, we have established gene expression profiling of testes with different ROS levels and identified many uncharacterized molecules, which are deemed to be transcriptionally regulated by redox signaling and involved in ROS signaling-mediated stem cell maintenance.

1. Tan WS, Baeg GH*. (2018). Maf-S regulates germline stem cell differentiation in the Drosophila testis. Redox Biology, 15:125-134.
2. Tan WS, Lee QY, Wong SE, Cai Y, Baeg GH*. (2017). Redox homeostasis plays important roles in the maintenance of the Drosophila testis germline stem cells. Stem Cell Reports. 9:342-354.
3. Tan WS, Cai Y, Baeg GH*. (2017). Regulation of germline stem cells and their neighbouring somatic cells in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. InTechOpen Publishers, Inc. "Germ Cells". Chapter 2.