title: The plant homeodomain finger protein MESR4 is essential for embryonic development in Drosophila.
abstract: Misexpression Suppressor of Ras 4 (MESR4), a plant homeodomain (PHD) finger protein with nine zinc-finger motifs has been implicated in various biological processes including the regulation of fat storage and innate immunity in Drosophila. However, the role of MESR4 in the context of development remains unclear. Here it is shown that MESR4 is a nuclear protein essential for embryonic development. Immunostaining of polytene chromosomes using anti-MESR4 antibody revealed that MESR4 binds to numerous bands along the chromosome arms. The most intense signal was detected at the 39E-F region, which is known to contain the histone gene cluster. P-element insertions in the MESR4 locus, which were homozygous lethal during embryogenesis with defects in ventral ectoderm formation and head encapsulation was identified. In the mutant embryos, expression of Fasciclin 3 (Fas3), an EGFR signal target gene was greatly reduced, and the level of EGFR signal-dependent double phosphorylated ERK (dp-ERK) remained low. However, in the context of wing vein formation, genetic interaction experiments suggested that MESR4 is involved in the EGFR signaling as a negative regulator. These results suggested that MESR4 is a novel chromatin-binding protein required for proper expression of genes including those regulated by the EGFR signaling pathway during development. genesis 53:701-708, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan.|Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, RIKEN Tsukuba Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0074, Japan.
authors.forename: Ki-Hyeon
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Seong
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan.|Department of Liberal Arts and Human Development, Kanagawa University of Human Services, 1-10-1, Heiseicho, Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa, 238-8522, Japan.
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan.
authors.forename: Kayoko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuda-Sakurai
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aigaki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015816:Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal / Q000235:genetics; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D009154:Mutation; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015816:Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C061565:Fas3 protein, Drosophila; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C000601237:MESR4 protein, Drosophila; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins
keywords: PHD finger; chromatin-binding; loss-of-function mutation