PpV, acting via the JNK pathway, represses apoptosis during normal development of Drosophila wing

Apoptosis is one of the main fundamental biological processes required for development of multicellular organisms. Inappropriate regulation of apoptosis can lead to severe developmental abnormalities and diseases. Therefore, the control of apoptosis, not only for its activation but also for its inhibition, is critically important during development. In contrast to the extensive studies of apoptosis induction, its inhibitory mechanisms that are even more vital in certain populations of cells actually are very far from being well understood. Here we report an inhibitory role of protein phosphatase V (PpV), a serine/threonine protein phosphatase, in controlling the apoptosis during Drosophila wing development. We observed that inhibition of ppv by RNAi in wing imaginal discs induced ectopic cell death and caspase activation, thus, resulted in a defective adult wing. Moreover, knocking-down ppv triggered the activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signal, an evolutionarily conserved intracellular signaling that has been implicated to modulate the apoptotic machinery in many biological and experimental systems. Disrupting the JNK signal transduction was adequate to suppress the ppv effects for wing development. Together, we provided the evidence to demonstrate that ppv is required for normal wing development in maintaining the silence of apoptotic signal possibly through JNK pathway.