A transcription factor controlling development of peripheral sense organs in C. elegans.
The basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins constitute a class of transcription factors thought to be important in the control of cell-type determination. These transcription factors are believed to activate the expression of cell-type-specific genes to generate stable differentiated cell types. The expression of bHLH proteins, in turn, is regulated by spatial cues, so that switches in cell type occur in a reproducible pattern. We report here that the lin-32 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans, which encodes a bHLH protein of the Drosophila achaete-scute family of transcription factors, is necessary and in some cells sufficient for specification of the neuroblast cell fate. Similarity in the function and structure of the lin-32 protein (LIN-32) to transcription factors of the achaete-scute gene family in Drosophila and vertebrates implies that this class of transcription factors functioned in a primitive ancestral form to specify neuronal cell fate, supporting the proposition that certain basic mechanisms of cell-type determination have been conserved through metazoan evolution.
Zhao
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C
Department of Molecular Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461.
Emmons
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SW
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D018257:Helix-Loop-Helix Motifs; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D017933:Peripheral Nervous System / Q000196:embryology*; D012679:Sense Organs / Q000196:embryology*; D013623:Tail; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C567963:LIN-32 protein, C elegans; C089199:ac protein, Drosophila; C089197:sc protein, Drosophila