Genes that control dorsoventral polarity affect gene expression along the anteroposterior axis of the Drosophila embryo

Development ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.B. Carroll ◽  
G.M. Winslow ◽  
V.J. Twombly ◽  
M.P. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Maternal Effect ◽  
Positional Information ◽  
Drosophila Embryo ◽  
Dorsoventral Polarity ◽  
Anteroposterior Axis ◽  
Positional Marker ◽  
Control Pattern ◽  
The Relationship

At least 13 genes control the establishment of dorsoventral polarity in the Drosophila embryo and more than 30 genes control the anteroposterior pattern of body segments. Each group of genes is thought to control pattern formation along one body axis, independently of the other group. We have used the expression of the fushi tarazu (ftz) segmentation gene as a positional marker to investigate the relationship between the dorsoventral and anteroposterior axes. The ftz gene is normally expressed in seven transverse stripes. Changes in the striped pattern in embryos mutant for other genes (or progeny of females homozygous for maternal-effect mutations) can reveal alterations of cell fate resulting from such mutations. We show that in the absence of any of ten maternal-effect dorsoventral polarity gene functions, the characteristic stripes of ftz protein are altered. Normally there is a difference between ftz stripe spacing on the dorsal and ventral sides of the embryo; in dorsalized mutant embryos the ftz stripes appear to be altered so that dorsal-type spacing occurs on all sides of the embryo. These results indicate that cells respond to dorsoventral positional information in establishing early patterns of gene expression along the anteroposterior axis and that there may be more significant interactions between the different axes of positional information than previously determined.

Regulation of proneural gene expression and cell fate during neuroblast segregation in the Drosophila embryo

Development ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 939-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.B. Skeath ◽  
S.B. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Regulatory Protein ◽  
Drosophila Embryo ◽  
Proneural Gene ◽  
Developmental Pathway ◽  
Neurogenic Genes ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Epidermal Development

The Drosophila embryonic central nervous system develops from sets of progenitor neuroblasts which segregate from the neuroectoderm during early embryogenesis. Cells within this region can follow either the neural or epidermal developmental pathway, a decision guided by two opposing classes of genes. The proneural genes, including the members of the achaete-scute complex (AS-C), promote neurogenesis, while the neurogenic genes prevent neurogenesis and facilitate epidermal development. To understand the role that proneural gene expression and regulation play in the choice between neurogenesis and epidermogenesis, we examined the temporal and spatial expression pattern of the achaete (ac) regulatory protein in normal and neurogenic mutant embryos. The ac protein is first expressed in a repeating pattern of four ectodermal cell clusters per hemisegment. Even though 5–7 cells initially express ac in each cluster, only one, the neuroblast, continues to express ac. The repression of ac in the remaining cells of the cluster requires zygotic neurogenic gene function. In embryos lacking any one of five genes, the restriction of ac expression to single cells does not occur; instead, all cells of each cluster continue to express ac, enlarge, delaminate and become neuroblasts. It appears that one key function of the neurogenic genes is to silence proneural gene expression within the nonsegregating cells of the initial ectodermal clusters, thereby permitting epidermal development.

scholarly journals Cell fate in the chick limb bud and relationship to gene expression

Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (10) ◽  
pp. 1909-1918 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Vargesson ◽  
J.D. Clarke ◽  
K. Vincent ◽  
C. Coles ◽  
L. Wolpert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Posterior Margin ◽  
Cell Lineage ◽  
Limb Bud ◽  
Cell Populations ◽  
Apical Region ◽  
Vertebrate Limb ◽  
Wing Bud ◽  
The Relationship

We have produced detailed fate maps for mesenchyme and apical ridge of a stage 20 chick wing bud. The fate maps of the mesenchyme show that most of the wing arises from the posterior half of the bud. Subapical mesenchyme gives rise to digits. Cell populations beneath the ridge in the mid apical region fan out into the anterior tip of the handplate, while posterior cell populations extend right along the posterior margin. Subapical mesenchyme of the leg bud behaves similarly. The absence of anterior bending of posterior cell populations has implications when considering models of vertebrate limb evolution. The fatemaps of the apical ridge show that there is also a marked anterior expansion and cells that were in anterior apical ridge later become incorporated into non-ridge ectoderm along the margin of the bud. Mesenchyme and apical ridge do not expand in concert--the apical ridge extends more anteriorly. We used the fatemaps to investigate the relationship between cell lineage and elaboration of Hoxd-13 and Fgf-4 domains. Hoxd-13 and Fgf-4 are initially expressed posteriorly until about the mid-point of the early wing bud in mesenchyme and apical ridge respectively. Later in development, the genes come to be expressed throughout most of the handplate and apical ridge respectively. We found that at the proximal edge of the Hoxd-13 domain, cell populations stopped expressing the gene as development proceeded and found no evidence that the changes in extent of the domains were due to initiation of gene expression in anterior cells. Instead the changes in extent of expression fit with the fate maps and can be attributed to expansion and fanning out of cell populations initially expressing the genes.

scholarly journals A gene expression atlas of a bicoid-depleted Drosophila embryo reveals early canalization of cell fate

Development ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 142 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. Staller ◽  
C. C. Fowlkes ◽  
M. D. J. Bragdon ◽  
Z. Wunderlich ◽  
J. Estrada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Drosophila Embryo ◽  
Gene Expression Atlas ◽  
Expression Atlas

Role of Nudel protease activation in triggering dorsoventral polarization of the Drosophila embryo

Development ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 125 (20) ◽  
pp. 4045-4053 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.K. LeMosy ◽  
D. Kemler ◽  
C. Hashimoto
Keyword(s):  
Serine Protease ◽  
Ovarian Follicle ◽  
Positional Information ◽  
Ventral Side ◽  
Drosophila Embryo ◽  
Follicle Cells ◽  
Signaling Mechanism ◽  
Dorsoventral Polarity ◽  
Serine Protease Domain ◽  
Protease Activation

The establishment of embryonic dorsoventral polarity in Drosophila depends on a signaling mechanism in which the signal for ventral development is locally produced. This mechanism requires the activity of the nudel gene in ovarian follicle cells, which provide dorsoventral positional information for the embryo. The nudel gene product, a large mosaic protein with a central serine protease domain, has been proposed to function in locally triggering a protease cascade that produces the ventral signal. Here we provide evidence that the serine protease activity of the Nudel protein is essential for embryonic dorsoventral polarity and that the active Nudel protease is generated by autoproteolytic cleavage of a zymogen form. Activation of the Nudel protease is independent of the other known proteases involved in dorsoventral polarity establishment and appears to occur symmetrically on the surface of the embryo. Our findings suggest that Nudel protease activation initiates the protease cascade that produces the ventral signal, but that spatial regulation occurring downstream of Nudel protease activation localizes the cascade to the ventral side of the embryo.

scholarly journals A gene expression atlas of abicoid-depleted Drosophila embryo reveals early canalization of cell fate

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max V Staller ◽  
Charless C Fowlkes ◽  
Meghan D.J. Bragdon ◽  
Zeba B. Wunderlich ◽  
Angela DePace
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Drosophila Embryo ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Cell Fates ◽  
Gene Expression Atlas ◽  
Expression Atlas ◽  
Gene Regulatory

In developing embryos, gene regulatory networks canalize cells towards discrete terminal fates. We studied the behavior of the anterior-posterior segmentation network in Drosophila melanogaster embryos depleted of a key maternal input, bicoid (bcd), by building a cellular- resolution gene expression atlas containing measurements of 12 core patterning genes over 6 time points in early development. With this atlas, we determine the precise perturbation each cell experiences, relative to wild type, and observe how these cells assume cell fates in the perturbed embryo. The first zygotic layer of the network, consisting of the gap and terminal genes, is highly robust to perturbation: all combinations of transcription factor expression found in bcd depleted embryos were also found in wild type embryos, suggesting that no new cell fates were created even at this very early stage. All of the gap gene expression patterns in the trunk expand by different amounts, a feature that we were unable to explain using two simple models of the effect of bcd depletion. In the second layer of the network, depletion of bcd led to an excess of cells expressing both even skipped and fushi tarazu early in the blastoderm stage, but by gastrulation this overlap resolved into mutually exclusive stripes. Thus, following depletion of bcd, individual cells rapidly canalize towards normal cell fates in both layers of this gene regulatory network. Our gene expression atlas provides a high resolution picture of a classic perturbation and will enable further modeling of canalization in this transcriptional network.

scholarly journals Endolysosomal Cation Channels and MITF in Melanocytes and Melanoma

Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1021
Author(s):  
Carla Abrahamian ◽  
Christian Grimm
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Gene Expression ◽  
Transcription Factor ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Signaling Cascades ◽  
Cation Channels ◽  
Pore Channel ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Canonical Wnt ◽  
The Relationship

Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is the principal transcription factor regulating pivotal processes in melanoma cell development, growth, survival, proliferation, differentiation and invasion. In recent years, convincing evidence has been provided attesting key roles of endolysosomal cation channels, specifically TPCs and TRPMLs, in cancer, including breast cancer, glioblastoma, bladder cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and melanoma. In this review, we provide a gene expression profile of these channels in different types of cancers and decipher their roles, in particular the roles of two-pore channel 2 (TPC2) and TRPML1 in melanocytes and melanoma. We specifically discuss the signaling cascades regulating MITF and the relationship between endolysosomal cation channels, MAPK, canonical Wnt/GSK3 pathways and MITF.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document