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First published online 19 November 2003
doi: 10.1242/dev.00863

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The Caenorhabditis elegans schnurri homolog sma-9 mediates stage- and cell type-specific responses to DBL-1 BMP-related signaling

¹ Department of Biology, Queens College, and PhD Program in Biochemistry, The Graduate School and University Center, The City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367, USA
² Department of Molecular Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
³ Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
⁴ Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: csavage{at}qc1.qc.edu)

Accepted 11 September 2003

In Caenorhabditis elegans, the DBL-1 pathway, a BMP/TGFß-related signaling cascade, regulates body size and male tail development. We have cloned a new gene, sma-9, that encodes the C. elegans homolog of Schnurri, a large zinc finger transcription factor that regulates dpp target genes in Drosophila. Genetic interactions, the sma-9 loss-of-function phenotype, and the expression pattern suggest that sma-9 acts as a downstream component and is required in the DBL-1 signaling pathway, and thus provide the first evidence of a conserved role for Schnurri proteins in BMP signaling. Analysis of sma-9 mutant phenotypes demonstrates that SMA-9 activity is temporally and spatially restricted relative to known DBL-1 pathway components. In contrast with Drosophila schnurri, the presence of multiple alternatively spliced sma-9 transcripts suggests protein isoforms with potentially different cell sublocalization and molecular functions. We propose that SMA-9 isoforms function as transcriptional cofactors that confer specific responses to DBL-1 pathway activation.

Key words: BMP, Schnurri, Transcription factor, Body size, Pattern formation, Alternative splicing

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