Interaction between apterous and early expression of vestigial in formation of the dorso-ventral compartments in the Drosophila wing disc.
BACKGROUND
Compartment formation is a developmental process that requires the existence of barriers against intermixing between cell groups. In the Drosophila wing disc, the dorso-ventral (D/V) compartment boundary is defined by the expression of the apterous (ap) selector gene in the dorsal compartment. AP activity is under control of dLMO which destabilizes the formation of the AP-CHIP complex.


RESULTS
We report that D/V boundary formation in the wing disc also depends on early expression of vestigial (vg). Our data suggest that vg is already required for wing cell proliferation before D/V compartmentalization. In addition, we show that over-expression of vg can, to some extent, rescue the effect of the absence of ap on D/V boundary formation. Early VG product regulates AP activity by inducing dLMO and thus indirectly regulating ap target genes such as fringe and the PSalpha1 and PSalpha2 integrins.


CONCLUSIONS
Normal cell proliferation is necessary for ap expression at the level of the D/V boundary. This would be mediated by vg, which interacts in a dose-dependent way with ap.
Delanoue
Rénald
R
Institut Jacques Monod, Tour 43, 2 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France.
Zider
Alain
A
Cossard
Raynald
R
Dutriaux
Annie
A
Silber
Jöel
J
D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D039001:Integrin alpha Chains; D016023:Integrins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D060850:LIM-Homeodomain Proteins; D009024:Morphogenesis; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010641:Phenotype; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D039001:Integrin alpha Chains; D016023:Integrins; D060850:LIM-Homeodomain Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C074459:ap protein, Drosophila; C103336:dap protein, Drosophila; C082188:if protein, Drosophila; C095064:vg protein, Drosophila; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases; C090576:fng protein, Drosophila