UNC-55, an orphan nuclear hormone receptor, orchestrates synaptic specificity among two classes of motor neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Loss of UNC-55 function in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans causes one motor neuron class, the ventral D (VD) motor neurons, to adopt the synaptic pattern of another motor neuron class, the dorsal D (DD) motor neurons. Here we show that unc-55 encodes a member of the nuclear hormone receptor gene family that is similar to the vertebrate chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factors. Although the VD and DD motor neuron classes arise from different lineages at different developmental stages, they share a number of structural and functional features that appear to be the product of identical genetic programs. UNC-55 is expressed in the VD but not the DD motor neurons to modify this genetic program and to create the synaptic pattern that distinguishes the two motor neuron classes from one another.
Zhou
H M
HM
Department of Biology and Center for Neural Communication and Computation, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, USA.
Walthall
W W
WW
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019521:Body Patterning; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D006801:Humans; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D005810:Multigene Family; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013569:Synapses / Q000235:genetics*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C117323:UNC-55 protein, C elegans; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins