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    

First published online 5 October 2005
doi: 10.1242/dev.02054

Development 132, 4801-4810 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
dev.02054v1
132/21/4801    most recent
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 Related articles in Development
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 Horabin, J. I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Horabin, J. I.

Splitting the Hedgehog signal: sex and patterning in Drosophila

Jamila I. Horabin*,{dagger}

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA

{dagger} Author for correspondence (e-mail: jamila.horabin{at}med.fsu.edu)

Accepted 23 August 2005

Sex-lethal (Sxl), the Drosophila sex-determination master switch, is on in females and controls sexual development as a splicing and translational regulator. Hedgehog (Hh) is a secreted protein that specifies cell fate during development. Previous work has demonstrated that Sxl protein is part of the Hh cytoplasmic signaling complex and that Hh promotes Sxl nuclear entry. In the wing disc anterior compartment, Patched (Ptc), the Hh receptor, acts positively in this process. Here, it is shown that the levels and rate of nuclear entry of full-length Cubitus interruptus (Ci), the Hh signaling target, are enhanced by Sxl. This effect requires the cholesterol but not palmitoyl modification on Hh, and expands the zone of full-length Ci expression. Expansion of Ci activation and its downstream targets, particularly decapentaplegic the Drosophila TGFß homolog, suggests a mechanism for generating different body sizes in the sexes; in Drosophila, females are larger and this difference is controlled by Sxl. Consistent with this proposal, discs expressing ectopic Sxl show an increase in growth. In keeping with the idea of the involvement of a signaling system, this growth effect by Sxl is not cell autonomous. These results have implications for all organisms that are sexually dimorphic and use Hh for patterning.

Key words: Hedgehog, Sex-lethal, Decapentaplegic, Body size, Drosophila


Related articles in Development:

Hh: the link between sex and size?

Development 2005 132: e2105. [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Cell Sci.Home page
S. L. Walthall, M. Moses, and J. I. Horabin
A large complex containing Patched and Smoothened initiates Hedgehog signaling in Drosophila
J. Cell Sci., March 1, 2007; 120(5): 826 - 837.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2005