Negative regulatory sequences in the lin-14 3'-untranslated region are necessary to generate a temporal switch during Caenorhabditis elegans development.
The heterchronic gene lin-14 controls the temporal sequence of developmental events in the Caenorhabditis elegans postembryonic cell lineage. It encodes a nuclear protein that normally is present in most somatic cells of late embryos and L1 larvae but is absent at later stages. Two lin-14 gain-of-function mutations delete 3'-untranslated sequences causing an inappropriately high level of the lin-14 nuclear protein late in development. These mutations identify a negative regulatory element that controls the formation of the lin-14 protein temporal gradient. The 21-kb lin-14 gene is differentially spliced to generate three lin-14 transcripts that encode protein products with variable amino-terminal regions and a constant carboxy-terminal region. The sequence of the gene revealed no protein sequence similarity to any proteins in various data bases.
Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
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B
Wightman
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TR
Bürglin
J
J
Gatto
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P
Arasu
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G
Ruvkun
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D003360:Cosmids; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D005796:Genes; D005812:Genes, Switch; D007814:Larva; D008961:Models, Structural; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D003062:Codon; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D004247:DNA