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First published online 19 July 2006
doi: 10.1242/dev.02490

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary Material An erratum has been published All Versions of this Article: dev.02490v1 133/16/3147    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Chi, W. Articles by Reinke, V. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Chi, W. Articles by Reinke, V.

Promotion of oogenesis and embryogenesis in the C. elegans gonad by EFL-1/DPL-1 (E2F) does not require LIN-35 (pRB)

Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: valerie.reinke{at}yale.edu)

Accepted 31 May 2006

In Caenorhabditis elegans, EFL-1 (E2F), DPL-1 (DP) and LIN-35 (pRb) act coordinately in somatic tissues to inhibit ectopic cell division, probably by repressing the expression of target genes. EFL-1, DPL-1 and LIN-35 are also present in the germline, but do not always act together. Strong loss-of-function mutations in either efl-1 or dpl-1 cause defects in oogenesis that result in sterility, while lin-35 mutants are fertile with reduced broods. Microarray-based expression profiling of dissected gonads from efl-1, dpl-1 and lin-35 mutants reveals that EFL-1 and DPL-1 promote expression of an extensively overlapping set of target genes, consistent with the expectation that these two proteins function as a heterodimer. Regulatory regions upstream of many of these target genes have a canonical E2F-binding site, suggesting that their regulation by EFL-1/DPL-1 is direct. Many EFL-1/DPL-1 responsive genes encode proteins required for oogenesis and early embryogenesis, rather than cell cycle components. By contrast, LIN-35 appears to function primarily as a repressor of gene expression in the germline, and the genes that it acts on are for the most part distinct from those regulated by EFL-1 and/or DPL-1. Thus, in vivo, C. elegans E2F directly promotes oogenesis and embryogenesis through the activation of a tissue-specific transcriptional program that does not require LIN-35.

Key words: C. elegans, Germline, E2F, Microarrays, Gene expression, pRB, DP

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