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Published Online September 22, 2005
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1119432

Reports

Submitted on August 29, 2005
Accepted on September 15, 2005

Antagonistic Actions of Ecdysone and Insulins Determine Final Size in Drosophila

Julien Colombani 1, Laurence Bianchini 2, Sophie Layalle 2, Emilie Pondeville 3, Chantal Dauphin-Villemant 3, Christophe Antoniewski 4, Clément Carré 4, Stéphane Noselli 2, Pierre Léopold 2*

1 CNRS UMR6543, Institute for Signaling, Developmental Biology and Cancer, Parc Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France; Present Address: Cancer Research UK, London Institute, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK.
2 CNRS UMR6543, Institute for Signaling, Developmental Biology and Cancer, Parc Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France.
3 CNRS FRE2852, Université P. et M. Curie, 7 quai St. Bernard, 75252 Paris, France.
4 Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Pierre Léopold , E-mail: leopold{at}unice.fr

All animals coordinate growth and maturation in order to reach their final size and shape. In insects, insulin family molecules control growth and metabolism, while pulses of the steroid 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) initiate major developmental transitions. We show here that 20E signaling also negatively controls animal growth rates by impeding general insulin signaling, involving dFOXO localization and 4E-BP transcription. We also demonstrate that the larval fat body, equivalent to the vertebrate liver, is a key relay element for ecdysone-dependent growth inhibition. This establishes that ecdysone counteracts the growth-promoting action of insulins, thus forming a humoral regulatory loop that determines organismal size.


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