title: Interaction between torso and dorsal, two elements of different transduction pathways in the Drosophila embryo.
abstract: Early development of the Drosophila embryo is under the control of some maternal genes responsible for the establishment of its general pattern. Three sets of genes determine the anteroposterior pattern; two distinct systems specify anterior and posterior development and a third one, the terminal system, is responsible for the development of the poles of the embryo. A different set of genes specifies dorsoventral polarity, which is established by the graded activity of the dorsal gene product. Here I analyze the effect of the terminal system on the expression of two zygotic genes involved in dorsoventral pattern, snail and decapentaplegic, and I show that this effect is mediated by a reduction on dorsal activity by the terminal system. Due to the interaction of these two systems, both of which use transmembrane signalling mechanisms, the poles adopt a more dorsalized fate than their counterparts in the middle of the embryo.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular (CSIC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Casanova
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005260:Female; D007301:Insect Hormones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D014157:Transcription Factors
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D007301:Insect Hormones; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C062236:dl protein, Drosophila; C064196:dpp protein, Drosophila