Local inhibition of Drosophila homeobox-containing neural dorsoventral patterning genes by Dpp.
An important step in Drosophila neurogenesis is to establish the neural dorsoventral (DV) patterning. Here we describe how dpp loss-of- and gain-of-function mutation affects the homeobox-containing neural DV patterning genes expressed in the ventral neuroectoderm. Ventral nervous system defective (vnd), intermediate neuroblast defective (ind), muscle-specific homeobox (msh), and orthodenticle (otd) genes participate in development of the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system, and encode homeodomain proteins. otd and msh genes were ectopically expressed in dpp loss-of-function mutation, but vnd and ind were not affected. However, when dpp was ectopically expressed in the ventral neuroectoderm by rho-GAL4/UAS-dpp system, it caused the repression of vnd, and msh expressions in ventral and dorsal columns of the neuroectoderm, respectively, but not that of ind. The later expression pattern of otd was also restricted by Dpp. The expression pattern of msh, vnd and otd in dpp loss-of-function and gain-of-function mutation indicates that Dpp activity does not reach to the ventral midline and it works locally to establish the dorsal boundary of the ventral neuroectoderm.
Oh
Chun Taek
CT
Department of Biological Sciences, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-Dong, Kwangjin-Gu, 143-701, Seoul, South Korea.
Kwon
Seung Hae
SH
Jeon
Kyoung Ja
KJ
Han
Pyung Lim
PL
Kim
Sang Hee
SH
Jeon
Sang Hak
SH
D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000235:genetics*; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D009154:Mutation
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C064196:dpp protein, Drosophila