title: Specific truncations of Drosophila Notch define dominant activated and dominant negative forms of the receptor.
abstract: The Notch gene of Drosophila plays an important role in cell fate specification throughout development. To investigate the functions of specific structural domains of the Notch protein in vivo, a series of deletion mutants have been ectopically expressed under the hsp70 heat shock promoter. Two classes of dominant phenotypes are observed, one suggestive of Notch loss-of-function mutations and the other of Notch gain-of-function mutations. Dominant activated phenotypes result from overexpression of a protein lacking most extracellular sequences, while dominant negative phenotypes result from overexpression of a protein lacking most intracellular sequences. These results support the notion that Notch functions as a receptor whose extracellular domain mediates ligand binding, resulting in the transmission of developmental signals by the cytoplasmic domain. Finally, the phenotypes observed suggest that the cdc 10/ankyrin repeat region within the intracellular domain plays an essential role in the postulated signal transduction events.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Cell Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06536-0812.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rebay
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Fehon
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Artavanis-Tsakonas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017487:Ankyrins; D002451:Cell Compartmentation; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D007301:Insect Hormones / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D051880:Receptors, Notch; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014157:Transcription Factors
chemical_list: D017487:Ankyrins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D007301:Insect Hormones; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C497759:N protein, Drosophila; D051880:Receptors, Notch; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C061178:cdc10 protein, S pombe