Gastrulation defective is a serine protease involved in activating the receptor toll to polarize the Drosophila embryo.
The dorsoventral axis of the Drosophila embryo is induced by a ventrally restricted ligand for the receptor Toll. The Toll ligand is generated by a proteolytic processing reaction, which occurs at the end of a proteolytic cascade and requires the gastrulation defective (gd), nudel, pipe, and windbeutel genes. Here we demonstrate that the GD protein is a serine protease and that the three other genes act to restrict GD activity to the ventral side of the embryo. Our data support a model in which the GD protease catalyzes the ventral activation of the proteolytic cascade that produces the Toll ligand.
Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
J H
JH
Han
S H
SH
Lee
Y Q
YQ
Tan
E K
EK
LeMosy
C
C
Hashimoto
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000502:physiology*; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D047108:Embryonic Development; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000378:metabolism*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000502:physiology*; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; C068721:Tl protein, Drosophila; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases