Study of bantam miRNA expression in brain tumour resulted due to loss of polarity modules in Drosophila melanogaster.

Disturbance of delicate concordance between stem cell proliferation, specification and differentiation during brain development leads to several neural disorders including tumours. Accumulating evidences have demonstrated involvement of short noncoding microRNAs (miRNAs) in governing several biological as well as pathological processes, including tumourigenesis across various species. Drosophila bantam miRNA, known to regulate critical physiological functions is reported to have elevated expression in ovarian tumour. Here, we provide an update on the expression of bantam miRNA in Drosophila brain tumour background resulting due to loss of well characterized polarity proteins, Brat, Lgl and Scrib. Since, both miRNA TaqMan assay and bantam sensor assay showed elevated expression of bantam in brain tumour background, it clearly reflects presence of an antagonistic relationship between polarity proteins and bantam miRNA indicating of its involvement in tumour progression.