Sequence and expression of myoglianin, a novel Drosophila gene of the TGF-beta superfamily.
Various members of the TGF-beta superfamily of signaling molecules are known to have important roles in mesoderm patterning and differentiation during vertebrate and invertebrate embryogenesis. Here we characterize a new TGF-beta member from Drosophila, Myoglianin, that is most closely related to the vertebrate muscle differentiation factor Myostatin and to vertebrate BMP-11. Northern analysis shows that myoglianin is expressed throughout the Drosophila life cycle. In situ hybridization detects maternally-derived transcripts that are enriched in the pole plasm and later become enclosed in the pole cells. Between stages 11 and 14, myoglianin mRNA is exclusively detected in glial cells and their precursors. Following stage 14, high levels of myoglianin expression are observed in the developing somatic muscles as well as in visceral muscles and cardioblasts. We also show that the zygotic expression of a recently described Drosophila activin, which maps to the same interval 102 on chromosome 4 as myoglianin, is restricted to the developing central and peripheral nervous system.
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Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1 Gustave Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, USA.
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000196:embryology; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D055435:Myostatin; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics; D029867:Xenopus Proteins
D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C118643:GDF11.1 protein, Xenopus; D019476:Insect Proteins; D055435:Myostatin; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D029867:Xenopus Proteins; C121965:myo protein, Drosophila