AUTHOR=Ismail Joy N. , Badini Shireen , Frey Felice , Abou-Kheir Wassim , Shirinian Margret 

TITLE=Drosophila Tet Is Expressed in Midline Glia and Is Required for Proper Axonal Development

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00252

DOI=10.3389/fncel.2019.00252

ISSN=1662-5102

ABSTRACT=<p>Ten-Eleven Translocation (TET) proteins are important epigenetic regulators that play a key role in development and are frequently deregulated in cancer. <italic>Drosophila melanogaster</italic> has a single homologous Tet gene (<italic>dTet</italic>) that is highly expressed in the central nervous system during development. Here, we examined the expression pattern of dTet in the third instar larval CNS and discovered its presence in a specific set of glia cells: midline glia (MG). Moreover, dTet knockdown resulted in significant lethality, locomotor dysfunction, and alterations in axon patterning in the larval ventral nerve cord. Molecular analyses on <italic>dTet</italic> knockdown larvae showed a downregulation in genes involved in axon guidance and reduced expression of the axon guidance cue Slit. Our findings point toward a potential role for dTet in midline glial function, specifically the regulation of axon patterning during neurodevelopment.</p>