Coordination of growth between individual organs and the whole body is essential during development to produce adults with appropriate size and proportions [1, 2]. How local organ-intrinsic signals and nutrient-dependent systemic factors are integrated to generate correctly proportioned organisms under different environmental conditions is poorly understood. In Drosophila, Hippo/Warts signaling functions intrinsically to regulate tissue growth and organ size [3, 4], whereas systemic growth is controlled via antagonistic interactions of the steroid hormone ecdysone and nutrient-dependent insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) (insulin) signaling [2, 5]. The interplay between insulin and ecdysone signaling regulates systemic growth and controls organismal size. Here, we show that Warts (Wts; LATS1/2) signaling regulates systemic growth in Drosophila by activating basal ecdysone production, which negatively regulates body growth. Further, we provide evidence that Wts mediates effects of insulin and the neuropeptide prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) on regulation of ecdysone production through Yorkie (Yki; YAP/TAZ) and the microRNA bantam (ban). Thus, Wts couples insulin signaling with ecdysone production to adjust systemic growth in response to nutritional conditions during development. Inhibition of Wts activity in the ecdysone-producing cells non-autonomously slows the growth of the developing imaginal-disc tissues while simultaneously leading to overgrowth of the animal. This indicates that ecdysone, while restricting overall body growth, is limiting for growth of certain organs. Our data show that, in addition to its well-known intrinsic role in restricting organ growth, Wts/Yki/ban signaling also controls growth systemically by regulating ecdysone production, a mechanism that we propose controls growth between tissues and organismal size in response to nutrient availability.

Homeostasis in the Drosophila midgut is maintained by stem cells [1, 2]. The intestinal epithelium contains two types of differentiated cells that are lost and replenished: enteroendocrine (EE) cells and enterocytes (ECs). Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) are the only cells in the adult midgut that proliferate [3, 4], and ISC divisions give rise to an ISC and an enteroblast (EB), which differentiates into an EC or an EE cell [3-5]. If the midgut epithelium is damaged, then ISC proliferation increases [6-12]. Damaged ECs express secreted ligands (Unpaired proteins) that activate Jak-Stat signaling in ISCs and EBs to promote their proliferation and differentiation [7, 9, 13, 14]. We show that the Hippo pathway components Warts and Yorkie mediate a transition from low- to high-level ISC proliferation to facilitate regeneration. The Hippo pathway regulates growth in diverse organisms and has been linked to cancer [15, 16]. Yorkie is activated in ECs in response to tissue damage or activation of the damage-sensing Jnk pathway. Activation of Yorkie promotes expression of unpaired genes and triggers a nonautonomous increase in ISC proliferation. Our observations uncover a role for Hippo pathway components in regulating stem cell proliferation and intestinal regeneration.

Altered expression of apicobasal polarity factors is associated with cancer in vertebrates and tissue overgrowth in invertebrates, yet the mechanisms by which these factors affect growth-regulatory pathways are not well defined. We have tested the basis of an overgrowth phenotype driven by the Drosophila protein Crumbs (Crb), which nucleates an apical membrane complex that functionally interacts with the Par6/Par3/aPKC and Scrib/Dlg/Lgl apicobasal polarity complexes.

Multicellular animals have evolved conserved signaling pathways that translate cell polarity cues into mitotic spindle positioning to control the orientation of cell division within complex tissue structures. These oriented cell divisions are essential for the development of cell diversity and the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. Despite intense efforts, the molecular mechanisms that control spindle orientation remain incompletely defined. Here, we describe a role for the Hippo (Hpo) kinase complex in promoting Partner of Inscuteable (Pins)-mediated spindle orientation. Knockdown of Hpo, Salvador (Sav), or Warts (Wts) each result in a partial loss of spindle orientation, a phenotype previously described following loss of the Pins-binding protein Mushroom body defect (Mud). Similar to orthologs spanning yeast to mammals, Wts kinase localizes to mitotic spindle poles, a prominent site of Mud localization. Wts directly phosphorylates Mud in vitro within its C-terminal coiled-coil domain. This Mud coiled-coil domain directly binds the adjacent Pins-binding domain to dampen the Pins/Mud interaction, and Wts-mediated phosphorylation uncouples this intramolecular Mud interaction. Loss of Wts prevents cortical Pins/Mud association without affecting Mud accumulation at spindle poles, suggesting phosphorylation acts as a molecular switch to specifically activate cortical Mud function. Finally, loss of Wts in Drosophila imaginal disc epithelial cells results in diminished cortical Mud and defective planar spindle orientation. Our results provide new insights into the molecular basis for dynamic regulation of the cortical Pins/Mud spindle positioning complex and highlight a novel link with an essential, evolutionarily conserved cell proliferation pathway.

The Salvador-Warts-Hippo (SWH) pathway is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of tissue growth that is deregulated in human cancer. Upstream SWH pathway components convey signals from neighboring cells via a core kinase cassette to the transcription coactivator Yorkie (Yki). Yki controls tissue growth by modulating activity of transcription factors including Scalloped (Sd). To date, five SWH pathway kinases have been identified, but large-scale phosphoproteome studies suggest that unidentified SWH pathway kinases exist. To identify such kinases, we performed an RNA interference screen and isolated homeodomain-interacting protein kinase (Hipk). Unlike previously identified SWH pathway kinases, Hipk is unique in its ability to promote, rather than repress, Yki activity and does so in parallel to the Yki-repressive kinase, Warts (Wts). Hipk is required for basal Yki activity and is likely to regulate Yki function by promoting its accumulation in the nucleus. Like many SWH pathway proteins, Hipk's function is evolutionarily conserved as its closest human homolog, HIPK2, promotes activity of the Yki ortholog YAP in a kinase-dependent fashion. Further, HIPK2 promotes YAP abundance, suggesting that the mechanism by which HIPK2 regulates YAP has diverged in mammals.

The Hippo pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signaling network that integrates diverse cues to control organ size and cell fate. The central downstream pathway protein in Drosophila is the transcriptional co-activator Yorkie (YAP and TAZ in humans), which regulates gene expression with the Scalloped/TEA domain family member (TEAD) transcription factors [1-8]. A central regulatory step in the Hippo pathway is phosphorylation of Yorkie by the NDR family kinase Warts, which promotes Yorkie cytoplasmic localization by stimulating association with 14-3-3 proteins [9-12]. Numerous reports have purported a static model of Hippo signaling whereby, upon Hippo activation, Yorkie/YAP/TAZ become cytoplasmic and therefore inactive, and upon Hippo repression, Yorkie/YAP/TAZ transit to the nucleus and are active. However, we have little appreciation for the dynamics of Yorkie/YAP/TAZ subcellular localization because most studies have been performed in fixed cells and tissues. To address this, we used live multiphoton microscopy to investigate the dynamics of an endogenously tagged Yorkie-Venus protein in growing epithelial organs. We found that the majority of Yorkie rapidly traffics between the cytoplasm and nucleus, rather than being statically localized in either compartment. In addition, discrete cell populations within the same organ display different rates of Yorkie nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling. By assessing Yorkie dynamics in warts mutant tissue, we found that the Hippo pathway regulates Yorkie subcellular distribution by regulating its rate of nuclear import. Furthermore, Yorkie's localization fluctuates dramatically throughout the cell cycle, being predominantly cytoplasmic during interphase and, unexpectedly, chromatin enriched during mitosis. Yorkie's association with mitotic chromatin is Scalloped dependent, suggesting a potential role in mitotic bookmarking.

The Drosophila genes fat (ft) and dachsous (ds) encode large atypical cadherins that collaborate to coordinately polarize cells in the plane of the epithelium (planar cell polarity) and to affect growth via the Warts/Hippo pathway. Ft and Ds form heterodimeric bridges that convey polarity information from cell to cell. four-jointed (fj) is a modulator of Ft/Ds activity that acts in a graded fashion in the abdomen, eye, and wing. Genetic evidence indicates that Fj acts via Ds and/or Ft, and here we demonstrate that Fj can act independently on Ds and on Ft. It has been reported that Fj has kinase activity and can phosphorylate a subset of cadherin domains of both Ft and Ds in vitro. We have used both cell and in vitro assays to measure binding between Ft and Ds. We find that phosphorylation of Ds reduces its affinity for Ft in both of these assays. By expressing forms of Ds that lack the defined phosphorylation sites or have phosphomimetic amino acids at these positions, we demonstrate that effects of Fj on wing size and planar polarity can be explained by Fj phosphorylating these sites.

The Salvador-Warts-Hippo (Hippo) pathway is a conserved regulator of organ size and is deregulated in human cancers. In epithelial tissues, the Hippo pathway is regulated by fundamental cell biological properties, such as polarity and adhesion, and coordinates these with tissue growth. Despite its importance in disease, development, and regeneration, the complete set of proteins that regulate Hippo signaling remain undefined. To address this, we used proteomics to identify proteins that bind to the Hippo (Hpo) kinase. Prominent among these were PAK-interacting exchange factor (known as Pix or RtGEF) and G-protein-coupled receptor kinase-interacting protein (Git). Pix is a conserved Rho-type guanine nucleotide exchange factor (Rho-GEF) homologous to Beta-PIX and Alpha-PIX in mammals. Git is the single Drosophila melanogaster homolog of the mammalian GIT1 and GIT2 proteins, which were originally identified in the search for molecules that interact with G-protein-coupled receptor kinases. Pix and Git form an oligomeric scaffold to facilitate sterile 20-like kinase activation and have also been linked to GTPase regulation. We show that Pix and Git regulate Hippo-pathway-dependent tissue growth in D. melanogaster and that they do this in parallel to the known upstream regulator Fat cadherin. Pix and Git influence activity of the Hpo kinase by acting as a scaffold complex, rather than enzymes, and promote Hpo dimerization and autophosphorylation of Hpo's activation loop. Therefore, we provide important new insights into an ancient signaling network that controls the growth of metazoan tissues.