title: Headless flies produced by mutations in the paralogous Pax6 genes eyeless and twin of eyeless.
abstract: The two Pax6 gene homologs eyeless and twin of eyeless play decisive early roles in Drosophila eye development. Strong mutants of twin of eyeless or of eyeless are headless, which suggests that they are required for the development of all structures derived from eye-antennal discs. The activity of these genes is crucial at the very beginning of eye-antennal development in the primordia of eye-antennal discs when eyeless is first activated by the twin of eyeless gene product. This activation does not strictly depend on the Twin of eyeless protein, but is temperature-dependent in its absence. Twin of eyeless acts also in parallel to the eyeless gene and exerts functions that are partially redundant with those of Eyeless, while Eyeless is mainly required to prevent early cell death and promote eye development in eye-antennal discs.
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics, Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, S-90187 Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kronhamn
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frei
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daube
authors.forename: Renjie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.forename: Yandong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noll
authors.forename: Asa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rasmuson-Lestander
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D005123:Eye / Q000196:embryology; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006257:Head; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D016296:Mutagenesis; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D000071841:PAX6 Transcription Factor; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors; D010641:Phenotype; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D013696:Temperature; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D000071841:PAX6 Transcription Factor; D051761:Paired Box Transcription Factors; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; C113278:ey protein, Drosophila; C118464:toy protein, Drosophila