title: Drosophila goosecoid participates in neural development but not in body axis formation.
abstract: In vertebrate embryos, the homeobox gene goosecoid (gsc) is expressed in the gastrula organizer region and in later arising embryonic tissues including the foregut anlage. Ectopic expression and loss-of-function studies have demonstrated that Xenopus gsc elicits a dorsalizing activity that contributes to body axis formation. Here we report that the gsc gene is conserved in invertebrates. In Drosophila, D-gsc is expressed most strongly in the foregut anlage, which gives rise to the foregut proper and the stomatogastric nervous system (SNS). D-gsc expression overlaps with one of the three SNS precursor groups invaginating from the foregut anlage. Embryos mutant for D-gsc gastrulate normally but show disrupted invagination in the SNS primordium and lack one specific SNS ganglion. In addition, D-gsc mutant embryos show a less well defined defect in foregut arrangement. Our results indicate that this invertebrate homolog of gsc is not required for gastrulation but plays a role in neurogenesis in post-gastrula Drosophila embryos.
authors.affiliation: Max Plank Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jäckle
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D004064:Digestive System / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051956:Goosecoid Protein; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009024:Morphogenesis; D009420:Nervous System / Q000196:embryology; D010641:Phenotype; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014157:Transcription Factors
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051956:Goosecoid Protein; C497991:Gsc protein, Drosophila; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors