High impact information on gcm2

• glial cells missing and gcm2 cell autonomously regulate both glial and neuronal development in the visual system of Drosophila [1].
• Animals deficient for both gcm and gcm2 fail to express the macrophage receptor Croquemort [2].
• gcm2 promotes glial cell differentiation and is required with glial cells missing for macrophage development in Drosophila [2].
• We have characterized a gcm homolog, gcm2. gcm2 is expressed at low levels in glial cells and hemocyte precursors [2].

Biological context of gcm2

• Furthermore, we show that prohemocytes are bipotent progenitors, and that downregulation of gcm/gcm2 is required for lz-induced crystal cell formation [3].

Anatomical context of gcm2

• Removal of gcm and gcm2 function shows that the two genes act redundantly and are required for the formation of a subset of glial cells [1].
• Here, we show that glide/gcm and glide2/gcm2, the fly glial cell determinants, are expressed in a subpopulation of embryonic tendon cells and required for their terminal differentiation [4].
• Our results suggest that both gcm and gcm2 are required together for the proliferation of plasmatocyte precursors, the expression of Croquemort protein, and the ability of plasmatocytes to convert into macrophages [2].

References