title: A conserved activation element in BMP signaling during Drosophila development.
abstract: The transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) family member Decapentaplegic (Dpp) is a key regulator of patterning and growth in Drosophila development. Previous studies have identified a short DNA motif called the silencer element (SE), which recruits a trimeric Smad complex and the repressor Schnurri to downregulate target enhancers upon Dpp signaling. We have now isolated the minimal enhancer of the dad gene and discovered a short motif we termed the activating element (AE). The AE is similar to the SE and recruits the Smad proteins via a conserved mechanism. However, the AE and SE differ at important nucleotide positions. As a consequence, the AE does not recruit Schnurri but rather integrates repressive input by the default repressor Brinker and activating input by the Smad signal transducers Mothers against Dpp (Mad) and Medea via competitive DNA binding. The AE allows the identification of hitherto unknown direct Dpp targets and is functionally conserved in vertebrates.
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Enrica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Charbonnier
authors.forename: Elín
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ellertsdóttir
authors.forename: Aristotelis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsirigos
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schuh
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pyrowolakis
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Affolter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019295:Computational Biology; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D024202:Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000235:genetics*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D037941:Silencer Elements, Transcriptional / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology*
chemical_list: C108633:Dad protein, Drosophila; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C064196:dpp protein, Drosophila