Cultured cells and wing disc size of silkworm can be controlled by the Hippo pathway
Hippo signalling represents a cell proliferation and organ-size control pathway. Yorki (Yki), a component of the Hippo pathway, induces the transcription of a number of targets that promote cell proliferation and survival. The functions of Yki have been characterized in Drosophila and mammals, while there are few reports on silkworm, Bombyx mori . In the present study, we found that BmYki3 facilitates cell migration and cell division, and enlarges the cultured cell and wing disc size. Co-immunoprecipitation results indicated that BmYki3 may interact with thymosin, E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase, protein kinase ASK1, dedicator of cytokinesis protein 1, calcium-independent phospholipase A2 and beta-spectrin. RNA-seq results indicated that 4444 genes were upregulated and 10 291 genes were downregulated after BmYki3 was overexpressed in the cultured cells. GO annotation indicated that the up/downregulated genes were enriched in 268/382 GO terms ( p < 0.01); KEGG analysis showed that the up/downregulated genes were enriched in 49/101 pathways. These findings provided novel information to understand the functions of BmYki3 in a cell proliferation and organ-size control pathway.