The UNC-119 family of neural proteins is functionally conserved between humans, Drosophila and C. elegans.
C. elegans animals mutant for the unc-119 gene exhibit movement, sensory and behavioral abnormalities. Consistent with a nervous system role, unc-119 reporter genes are expressed throughout the C. elegans nervous system. The UNC-119 protein has strong sequence similarity to the predicted protein from a human gene, HRG4/HsUNC-119, whose transcript is abundant in the retina. Using these similarities, we have identified a Drosphila homolog, DmUNC-119, which is expressed in the Drosophila nervous system. The predicted C. elegans, human and Drosophila gene products are conserved across two domains. Expression of portions of HRG4/HsUNC-119 or DmUNC-119, directed by the unc-119 promoter, can fully rescue the C. elegans unc-119 mutant phenotype. We tested the ability of portions of HRG4/HsUNC-119 to rescue, and found that its function in C. elegans requires the conserved carboxyl terminus, while the dissimilar amino terminus is dispensable. UNC-119, HRG4 and DmUNC-119 constitute members of a new class of neural genes whose common function has been maintained through metazoan evolution.
Maduro
M F
MF
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106, USA.
Gordon
M
M
Jacobs
R
R
Pilgrim
D B
DB
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017385:Sequence Homology
D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; D015801:Helminth Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; C098176:UNC-119 protein, C elegans; C098032:UNC119 protein, human