TY - JOUR
T1 - Snail-type zinc finger proteins prevent neurogenesis in Scutoid and transgenic animals of Drosophila
AU - Fuse, Naoyuki
AU - Matakatsu, Hitoshi
AU - Taniguchi, Misako
AU - Hayashi, Shigeo
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We thank Drs. M. Ashburner, A. Brand, U. Hinz, Y-N Jan, E. Lewis, H. Okano, R. Reuter, M. Scott, Ryu Ueda and Bloomington Stock Center for stocks, plasmid, and an antibody. We also thank Michael Ashburner, Yash Hiromi, Satoshi Goto, and Masataka Okabe for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant (Research for the Future) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPF). N.F. was a recipient of a JSPF postdoctoral fellowship.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - Scutoid is a classical dominant gain-of-function mutation of Drosophila, causing a loss of bristles and roughening of the compound eye. Previous genetic and molecular analyses have shown that Scutoid is associated with a chromosomal transposition resulting in a fusion of no-oceli and snail genes. How this gene fusion event leads to the defects in neurogenesis was not known until now. Here have found that snail is ectopically expressed in the eye-antennal and wing imaginal discs in Scutoid larvae, and that this expression is reduced in Scutoid revertants. We have also shown that the expressivity of Scutoid is enhanced by zeste mutations. snail and escargot encode evolutionarily conserved zinc-finger proteins involved in the development of mesoderm and limbs. Snail and Escargot proteins share a common target DNA sequence with the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) type proneural gene products. When expressed in the developing external sense organ precursors of the thorax and the eye, these proteins cause a loss of mechanosensory bristles in the thorax and perturbed the development of the compound eye. Such phenotypes resemble those associated with Scutoid. Furthermore, the effect of ectopic Escargot on bristle development is antagonized by coexpression of the bHLH gene asense. Thus, our results suggest that the Scutoid phenotype is due to an ectopic snail expression under the control of no-oceli enhancer, antagonizing neurogenesis through its inhibitory interaction with bHLH proteins.
AB - Scutoid is a classical dominant gain-of-function mutation of Drosophila, causing a loss of bristles and roughening of the compound eye. Previous genetic and molecular analyses have shown that Scutoid is associated with a chromosomal transposition resulting in a fusion of no-oceli and snail genes. How this gene fusion event leads to the defects in neurogenesis was not known until now. Here have found that snail is ectopically expressed in the eye-antennal and wing imaginal discs in Scutoid larvae, and that this expression is reduced in Scutoid revertants. We have also shown that the expressivity of Scutoid is enhanced by zeste mutations. snail and escargot encode evolutionarily conserved zinc-finger proteins involved in the development of mesoderm and limbs. Snail and Escargot proteins share a common target DNA sequence with the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) type proneural gene products. When expressed in the developing external sense organ precursors of the thorax and the eye, these proteins cause a loss of mechanosensory bristles in the thorax and perturbed the development of the compound eye. Such phenotypes resemble those associated with Scutoid. Furthermore, the effect of ectopic Escargot on bristle development is antagonized by coexpression of the bHLH gene asense. Thus, our results suggest that the Scutoid phenotype is due to an ectopic snail expression under the control of no-oceli enhancer, antagonizing neurogenesis through its inhibitory interaction with bHLH proteins.
KW - Basic helix-loop-helix protein
KW - Neurogenesis
KW - Scutoid
KW - escargot
KW - snail
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U2 - 10.1007/s004270050291
DO - 10.1007/s004270050291
M3 - Article
C2 - 10552298
AN - SCOPUS:0032699048
VL - 209
SP - 573
EP - 580
JO - Wilhelm Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology
JF - Wilhelm Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology
SN - 0949-944X
IS - 10
ER -