title: Insights into Hox protein function from a large scale combinatorial analysis of protein domains.
abstract: Protein function is encoded within protein sequence and protein domains. However, how protein domains cooperate within a protein to modulate overall activity and how this impacts functional diversification at the molecular and organism levels remains largely unaddressed. Focusing on three domains of the central class Drosophila Hox transcription factor AbdominalA (AbdA), we used combinatorial domain mutations and most known AbdA developmental functions as biological readouts to investigate how protein domains collectively shape protein activity. The results uncover redundancy, interactivity, and multifunctionality of protein domains as salient features underlying overall AbdA protein activity, providing means to apprehend functional diversity and accounting for the robustness of Hox-controlled developmental programs. Importantly, the results highlight context-dependency in protein domain usage and interaction, allowing major modifications in domains to be tolerated without general functional loss. The non-pleoitropic effect of domain mutation suggests that protein modification may contribute more broadly to molecular changes underlying morphological diversification during evolution, so far thought to rely largely on modification in gene cis-regulatory sequences.
authors: Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille Luminy, UMR6216 CNRS, Parc Scientifique de Luminy, Case 907, Marseille, France. samir.merabet@univmed.fr
authors: Samir
authors: S
authors: Merabet
authors: Isma
authors: I
authors: Litim-Mecheri
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Karlsson
authors: Richa
authors: R
authors: Dixit
authors: Mehdi
authors: M
authors: Saadaoui
authors: Bruno
authors: B
authors: Monier
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Brun
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Thor
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Vijayraghavan
authors: Laurent
authors: L
authors: Perrin
authors: Jacques
authors: J
authors: Pradel
authors: Yacine
authors: Y
authors: Graba
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000235:genetics*; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000235:genetics; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000196:embryology* / Q000254:growth & development; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D009154:Mutation; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D051155:Wnt1 Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D051155:Wnt1 Protein; C064196:dpp protein, Drosophila; C074622:wg protein, Drosophila; C066591:abd-A protein, Drosophila