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First published online 19 January 2005
doi: 10.1242/dev.01638

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ceh-16/engrailed patterns the embryonic epidermis of Caenorhabditis elegans

¹ ABI/Molecular Neurogenetics, LMU Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany
² IFOM (Firc Institute of Molecular Oncology Foundation), 20139 Milan, Italy
³ Department of Biology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel
⁴ BioIII/Bioinformatics and Molecular Genetics, University of Freiburg, Schaenzlestrasse 1, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: baumeister{at}celegans.de)

Accepted 6 December 2004

engrailed is a homeobox gene essential for developmental functions such as differentiation of cell populations and the onset of compartment boundaries in arthropods and vertebrates. We present the first functional study on engrailed in an unsegmented animal: the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In the developing worm embryo, ceh-16/engrailed is predominantly expressed in one bilateral row of epidermal cells (the seam cells). We show that ceh-16/engrailed primes a specification cascade through three mechanisms: (1) it suppresses fusion between seam cells and other epidermal cells by repressing eff-1/fusogen expression; (2) it triggers the differentiation of the seam cells through different factors, including the GATA factor elt-5; and (3) it segregates the seam cells into a distinct lateral cellular compartment, repressing cell migration toward dorsal and ventral compartments.

Key words: C. elegans, engrailed, Patterning

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