FIGURE 4:

Overgrowth and disruption of the epithelium is a consequence of increased Conu at the cell cortex. (A) Coexpression of Moe^∆ACT and epitope-tagged conu under the apGal4 driver in the dorsal portion of the disk (region above arrowheads) results in overproliferation and misfolding of the epithelium. (B) Expression of conu alone under apGal4 has no effect on the epithelium, and expression of Moe^∆ACT alone under apGal4 results in a slight disruption of the epithelium (C). (D) Depletion of Conu protein by RNAi in cells expressing Moe^∆ACT under apGal4 suppresses overproliferation of the epithelium, suggesting the overproliferation is due to stabilized Conu protein at the cell cortex. (E) Tethering Conu to the membrane using a myr sequence results in overgrowth and overproliferation similar to that seen for coexpression of Moe^∆ACT and conu. (F) The overproliferation caused by membrane-tethered Conu is dependent on its GAP activity, because expression of myr-conu^R402A, which carries a mutation in the GAP domain, has no effect on the epithelium. (G–G′′) Expression of a Flag-tagged wild-type version of conu under the enGal4 driver in the posterior half of the disk has no effect on the epithelium, while expression of Flag-tagged myr-conu results in overgrowth (H–H′′). Scale bar in (D) corresponds to (E) and (F); scale bar in (G) corresponds to (H).