The Drosophila dorsal-ventral patterning gene tolloid is related to human bone morphogenetic protein 1.
Mutations in the Drosophila tolloid (tld) gene lead to a partial transformation of dorsal ectoderm into ventral ectoderm. The null phenotype of tld is similar to, but less severe than decapentaplegic (dpp), a TGF-beta family member required for the formation of all dorsal structures. We have cloned the tld locus by P element tagging. At the blastoderm stage, tld RNA is expressed dorsally, similar to that described for dpp. Analysis of a tld cDNA reveals three sequence motifs: an N terminal region of similarity to a metalloprotease, two EGF-like repeats, and five copies of a repeat found in human complement proteins C1r and C1s. tld sequence is 41% identical to human bone morphogenetic protein 1 (BMP-1); the closest members to dpp within the TGF-beta superfamily are BMP-2 and BMP-4, two other bone morphogenetic proteins. These findings suggest that these genes are members of a signal generating pathway that has been conserved between insects and mammals.
Shimell
M J
MJ
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine 92717.
Ferguson
E L
EL
Childs
S R
SR
O'Connor
M B
MB
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D005796:Genes; D007301:Insect Hormones / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009024:Morphogenesis; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D055394:Tolloid-Like Metalloproteinases
D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D007301:Insect Hormones; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D055394:Tolloid-Like Metalloproteinases; C071471:tld protein, Drosophila