ABSTRACT A correct balance between proliferative and asymmetric cell divisions underlies normal development, stem cell maintenance and tissue homeostasis. What determines whether cells undergo symmetric or asymmetric cell division is poorly understood. To gain insight in the mechanisms involved, we studied the stem cell-like seam cells in the Caenorhabditis elegans epidermis. Seam cells go through a reproducible pattern of asymmetric divisions, instructed by non-canonical Wnt/β-catenin asymmetry signaling, and symmetric divisions that increase the seam cell number. Using time-lapse fluorescence microscopy, we show that symmetric cell divisions maintain the asymmetric localization of Wnt/β-catenin pathway components. Observations based on lineage-specific knockout and GFP-tagging of endogenous pop-1 support the model that POP-1 TCF induces differentiation at a high nuclear level, while low nuclear POP-1 promotes seam cell self-renewal. Before symmetric division, the transcriptional regulator rnt-1 Runx and cofactor bro-1 CBFβ temporarily bypass Wnt/β-catenin asymmetry by downregulating pop-1 expression. Thereby, RNT-1/BRO-1 appears to render POP-1 below the level required for its repressor function, which converts differentiation into self-renewal. Thus, opposition between the C. elegans Runx/CBFβ and TCF stem-cell regulators controls the switch between asymmetric and symmetric seam cell division.

C. elegans Runx/CBFβ suppresses POP-1(TCF) to convert asymmetric to proliferative division of stem cell-like seam cells