spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif ARCHIVE ANNOUNCEMENT! spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Brodu, V.
Right arrow Articles by Gould, A. P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Brodu, V.
Right arrow Articles by Gould, A. P.
Development 129, 2957-2963 (2002)
© 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

abdominal A specifies one cell type in Drosophila by regulating one principal target gene

Véronique Brodu, Philip R. Elstob and Alex P. Gould*

Medical Research Council, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK

*Author for correspondence (e-mail: agould{at}nimr.mrc.ac.uk)

Accepted 7 April 2002

The Hox/homeotic genes encode transcription factors that generate segmental diversity during Drosophila development. At the level of the whole animal, they are believed to carry out this role by regulating a large number of downstream genes. Here we address the unresolved issue of how many Hox target genes are sufficient to define the identity of a single cell. We focus on the larval oenocyte, which is restricted to the abdomen and induced in response to a non-cell autonomous, transient and highly selective input from abdominal A (abdA). We use Hox mutant rescue assays to demonstrate that this function of abdA can be reconstituted by providing Rhomboid (Rho), a processing factor for the EGF receptor ligand, secreted Spitz. Thus, in order to make an oenocyte, abdA regulates just one principal target, rho, that acts at the top of a complex hierarchy of cell-differentiation genes. These studies strongly suggest that, in at least some contexts, Hox genes directly control only a few functional targets within each nucleus. This raises the possibility that much of the overall Hox downstream complexity results from cascades of indirect regulation and cell-to-cell heterogeneity.

Key words: Hox/homeotic, EGFR, Drosophila




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 DevelopmentHome page
T. L. Lovato, T. P. Nguyen, M. R. Molina, and R. M. Cripps
The Hox gene abdominal-A specifies heart cell fate in the Drosophila dorsal vessel
Development, January 11, 2002; 129(21): 5019 - 5027.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2002