Recently, Professor Jin Lihua of the College of Life Sciences, along with her team, published ineLife,the top academic journal in the field of biology, a paper entitledDual role for Jumu in the control of hematopoietic progenitors in the Drosophila lymph gland(https://elifesciences.org/articles/25094). This paper investigates the regulation of the differentiation of precursor blood cells by Jumu--a member of the forkhead (FKH) transcription factor family of drosophila, which provides an important theoretical basis for understanding the hematopoietic effects and biological functions of related proteins in mammals and the mechanism of regulation in hematopoiesis of other FOX transcription factor family members.

Hematopoietic or hematopoietic production is a complex biological process, and also an important part to maintain body's normal life activities. Hematopoietic system metabolic disorders or dysfunction can cause blood system tumors and autoimmune diseases. Therefore, to elucidate the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells, and to maintain the regulation mechanism of stem cell homeostasis will be of significant for revealing the cause of hematopoietic dysfunction. After more than three years of research, Professor Jin Lihua found that Jumu could regulate lymphoid cell proliferation and differentiation through multiple mechanisms. According to the first author Hao Yangguang and communication author Professor Jin Lihua, in the lymphatic MZ area, Jumu regulates precursor blood cell differentiation through two ways: one is through the autonomic way to negatively control Col expression in MZ region, and thus promote the precursor blood cell differentiation; the other is through non-cell autonomy to prevent ectopic proliferation of PSC cells, and thus indirectly maintain the normal precursor blood cell differentiation. In the PSC region of lymphatic gland, Jumu can control the dMyc expression in PSC region through the autonomic way, and thus promote the proliferation of PSC cells.

In recent years, the hematopoiesis and natural immunity of drosophila are widely studied. The control mechanism of drosophila is highly similar to that of mammals, so it has gradually become a good model for studying blood and immune-related diseases. The research work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation and the Central University Basic Research Special Fund.