Fig. 9: The TOR pathway conveyed the effect of a high yeast diet on crystal cell differentiation.
The number of crystal cells in the lymph gland (white dashed line) was assessed using anti-Lozenge (Lz) and anti-prophenoloxidase (PPO) staining in Z-stack projections. The increase of crystal cell differentiation induced by a high-yeast diet (A) was mitigated in RhebPΔ1 (B) or TOR2L19 (C) heterozygous larvae. D Quantification of the above results. Two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test for multiple comparisons. When boxes are marked with the same letter, the difference between the mean values is not statistically significant (p > 0.05). If two boxes are marked with different letters, the mean values are significantly different (p < 0.05). For the wild type genotype, n = 48 primary lobes in normal food and n = 46 in high yeast; for RhebPΔ1/+, n = 13 in normal food and n = 14 in high yeast; for TOR2L19/+, n = 23 in normal food and n = 23 in high yeast. E–H Overexpression of Akt, silencing of Tsc1 or overexpression of Rheb driven by domeMESO-Gal4 led to increased crystal cell differentiation. I Quantification of these results, represented as the ratio between crystal cells and total cortical zone (CZ) hemocytes, which were calculated as the sum of P1+ cells (mature plasmatocytes) and Lz + /PPO+ cells (crystal cells). One-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test for treatments versus control comparisons (p < 0.0001 for each comparison). For wild type, n = 27 for Lz and n = 71 for PPO; for UAS-Akt, n = 18 for Lz and n = 16 for PPO; for Tsc1RNAi, n = 35 for Lz and n = 36 for PPO; for UAS-Rheb, n = 22 for Lz and n = 26 for PPO. D, I Box plots show the data distribution, with the box representing the interquartile range, the central line indicating the median, and whiskers extending to the minimum and maximum values. Source data for plots are provided as a Source Data file. ****p < 0.0001.
