The zinc finger protein REF-2 functions with the Hox genes to inhibit cell fusion in the ventral epidermis of C. elegans.
During larval development in C. elegans, some of the cells of the ventral epidermis, the Pn.p cells, fuse with the growing epidermal syncytium hyp7. The pattern of these cell fusions is regulated in a complex, sexually dimorphic manner. It is essential that some Pn.p cells remain unfused in order for some sex-specific mating structures to be generated. The pattern of Pn.p cell fusion is regulated combinatorially by two genes of the C. elegans Hox gene cluster: lin-39 and mab-5. Some of the complexity in the Pn.p cell fusion pattern arises because these two Hox proteins can regulate each other's activities. We describe a zinc-finger transcription factor, REF-2, that is required for the Pn.p cells to be generated and to remain unfused. REF-2 functions with the Hox proteins to prevent Pn.p cell fusion. ref-2 may also be a transcriptional target of the Hox proteins.
Alper
Scott
S
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143-0448, USA.
Kenyon
Cynthia
C
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D002459:Cell Fusion; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D004817:Epidermis / Q000254:growth & development; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; C465015:REF-2 protein, C elegans; D014157:Transcription Factors