{"doi":"10.1242/dev.204914","title":"The Tbx1 ortholog <i>org-1</i> is required to establish testis stem cell niche identity in <i>Drosophila</i>","abstract":"Stem cells require signals from a cellular microenvironment known as the niche that regulates identity, location and division of stem cells. Niche cell identity must be properly specified during development to form a tissue capable of functioning in the adult. Here, we show that the Tbx1 ortholog org-1 is expressed in Drosophila testis niche cells in response to Slit and FGF signals. org-1 is expressed during niche development and is required to specify niche cell identity. org-1 mutants specified fewer niche cells, and those cells showed disruption of niche-specific markers, including loss of the niche adhesion protein Fas3 and reduced hedgehog expression. We found that org-1 expression in somatic gonadal precursors is capable of inducing formation of additional niche cells. Disrupted niche identity in org-1 mutants caused defects in niche assembly and functionality. We found that the conserved transcription factor islet is expressed in response to org-1 and show that islet functions downstream to mediate niche identity and assembly. This work identifies a previously unreported role for org-1 in niche establishment.","journal":"Development","year":2025,"id":584882,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.955,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":228318,"name":"Anne Harrington","orcid":"0009-0002-3803-8218","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1498352,"name":"Tynan Gardner","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":526663,"name":"Stephen DiNardo","orcid":"0000-0003-4131-5511","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":526664,"name":"Lauren Anllo","orcid":"0000-0001-5482-5882","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1498351,"name":"Patrick Hofe","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":58,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:59:16.166424Z","pmid":"41378512","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}