spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online 25 July 2007
doi: 10.1242/dev.008375

Development 134, 3111-3119 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
dev.008375v1
134/17/3111    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 Yi, B.
Right arrow Articles by Sommer, R. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Yi, B.
Right arrow Articles by Sommer, R. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The pax-3 gene is involved in vulva formation in Pristionchus pacificus and is a target of the Hox gene lin-39

Buqing Yi and Ralf J. Sommer*

Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Department for Evolutionary Biology, Spemannstrasse 37, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany.

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: ralf.sommer{at}tuebingen.mpg.de)

Accepted 22 June 2007

The Hox gene lin-39 plays a crucial role in the establishment of the nematode vulva equivalence group. Mutations in lin-39 in Caenorhabditis elegans and Pristionchus pacificus result in a vulvaless phenotype because presumptive vulva precursor cells adopt non-vulval fates. Interestingly, the non-vulval fate of anterior and posterior epidermal cells differs between Caenorhabditis and Pristionchus; in C. elegans, non-vulval cells fuse with the hypodermis, whereas, in P. pacificus, they die as a result of programmed cell death. C. elegans lin-39 (Cel-lin-39) indirectly controls the cell fusion gene eff-1 by regulating the GATA transcription factors egl-18 and elt-6. In P. pacificus, the genetic context of its lin-39 (Ppa-lin-39) function was unknown. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of gev-2, a second generation-vulvaless mutant in P. pacificus. We show that gev-2 is the Ppa-pax-3 gene and that it has distinct functions in the cell fate specification of epidermal cells. Whereas Ppa-pax-3 regulates cell survival of the presumptive vulval precursor cells, it controls cell death of posterior epidermal cells. Molecular studies indicate that Ppa-pax-3 is a direct target of Ppa-LIN-39. Thus, we describe the first specific developmental defect of a nematode pax-3 gene and our data reveal different regulatory networks for the specification of the vulva equivalence group.

Key words: P. pacificus, Vulva development, C. elegans, Pax genes, lin-39


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in Development:

Worming a way into cell fate evolution

Development 2007 134: e1704. [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 CSH ProtocolsHome page
R. Rae, B. Schlager, and R. J. Sommer
Pristionchus pacificus: A Genetic Model System for the Study of Evolutionary Developmental Biology and the Evolution of Complex Life-History Traits
CSH Protocols, October 1, 2008; 2008(11): pdb.emo102 - pdb.emo102.
[Abstract] [Full Text]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2007