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First published online 16 September 2003
doi: 10.1242/dev.00770


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Even-skipped, acting as a repressor, regulates axonal projections in Drosophila

Miki Fujioka1, Bridget C. Lear2,*, Matthias Landgraf3, Galina L. Yusibova1, Jian Zhou1, Kristen M. Riley1, Nipam H. Patel2,{dagger} and James B. Jaynes1,{ddagger}

1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Thomas Jefferson University, 1020 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA
2 Department of Anatomy and Organismal Biology and HHMI, University of Chicago, MC1028, AMBN101, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
3 Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK



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Fig. 1. Rescue transgenes used to create neuron-specific eve mutants. Deletions were made in the context of a complete rescue transgene consisting of the eve locus from –6.4 to +9.2 kb (relative to the transcription start site, see Materials and methods for details). Three different deletions ({Delta}RP2A, B, C) were made in the region sufficient to drive expression in RP2, aCC and pCC neurons. Other deletions were of the minimal elements necessary to drive expression in either U/CQ neurons ({Delta}U/CQ) or EL neurons ({Delta}EL). An unbroken line indicates the region included in each construct, while a gap indicates the deleted region. The end points of each deletion are given above the line.

 


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Fig. 2. Deletion of individual neuronal regulatory elements eliminates expression in the corresponding neurons, without eliminating expression of a reporter driven by the same element. All embryos are in a Df(2R)eve mutant background, and carry the rescue transgene indicated on the left of each row (see Fig. 1 and text for details). All are oriented with anterior towards the left. Two different focal planes of the same embryo, stained with anti-Eve, are shown in the first two columns: the focal plane of the RP2 and a/pCC neurons in A,C,F,I; and that of the EL and U/CQ neurons in B,D,G,J. In all panels, black arrows indicate the positions of RP2 (left arrow) and pCC (right arrow) neurons, arrowheads indicate the positions of U/CQ neurons, and open arrows indicate the positions of EL neurons. (A,B) Eve expression from the complete (`wild type') rescue construct. (C,D) Eve expression from {Delta}RP2A. Note that there is no detectable Eve expression in RP2 and a/pCC neurons. The positions of RP2 and pCC, which do not overlap with those of U/CQ neurons, are indicated by arrows; aCC is also negative for Eve staining, but its position, immediately anterior to pCC, overlaps with that of a U/CQ, which is just out of focus in C. Eve expression in U/CQ (arrowhead) and EL neurons (open arrow) is normal. (E) ß-Gal expression (brown) driven by the RP2+a/pCC regulatory element in the same neurons where Eve is missing. Note that the element is still active in the absence of Eve (there is no black anti-Eve staining visible in this focal plane). (F,G) Eve expression from {Delta}U/CQ. (H) ß-gal expression (brown) driven by the U/CQ element in the eve neurons, and Eve expression (black) from {Delta}U/CQ. (I,J) Eve expression from {Delta}EL. (K) ß-gal expression (brown) driven by the EL element in the eve neurons, and Eve expression from {Delta}EL (black). Scale bar: 50 µm.

 


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Fig. 3. Without Eve, RP2 and a/pCC neurons show abnormal axonal morphologies. CNS preparations from embryos carrying both transgenes UAS-{tau}lacZ (microtubule-associated ßgal marker) and RN2-Gal4 (RP2+a/pCC driver), in a wild-type background (A,C,E,G,I,K,M,O), a {Delta}RP2A mutant background (eve null rescued with RP2 element-deleted transgenes; B,D,F,H,J,L,N,P), in an eveID19 background (Q) or in eveID19, {Delta}RP2A transheterozygotes (R), as indicated beside each row. (A,B) Anti-ß-gal staining; overview of the CNS. Scale bar (in B): 50 µm. (C,D) Anti-Eve staining (black) followed by anti-ß-gal staining (brown); black arrows indicate RP2 neurons. The focal plane is that of the U/CQ neurons, so that the RP2s are slightly out of focus. Note that RP2 is abnormally close to aCC in the mutant. (E,F) Anti-ß-gal staining; higher magnification view of A,B in the RP2 and aCC axonal focal plane. Note that very few RP2 axons turn laterally (arrows) in the mutant. (G-J) Anti-ß-gal staining (black) followed by anti-Fas2 staining (1D4 antibody, brown); stage 13 (G,H) and stage 15 (I,J) are shown. In the mutant, RP2s often extend an axon posteriorly, rather than anteriorly as in the wild type, along the lateral longitudinal fascicle (arrow in H,J). Although the majority of RP2s extend an axon anteriorly, which then either turns laterally at the pISN (arrowhead in J), as in the wild type, or fails to turn at the ISN (arrowhead in H; compare with the wild type in G,I), most of them do not exit the CNS (see Table 1). Even those that do exit the CNS fail to extend to the dorsal muscle field (see Fig. 5). (K,L) Anti-ß-gal staining; higher magnification view of A, B in the pCC axonal focal plane. The pCC axons extend anteriorly beyond the next more anterior pCC cell body in the wild type, while in the mutant, the pCC axons often cross the midline at the anterior commissure (arrows). Note that there are small neurons extending their axons laterally in the wild type. These are RP2 siblings, because at earlier stages, they also stain for Eve (not shown). (M,N) Higher magnification of K and D, respectively. Scale bar (in N): 5 µm. (O,P) Anti-ß-gal staining; stage 12 CNSs are shown. In the wild type, the positions of the aCC and pCC cell bodies (after their generation from GMC1-1a) are well regulated; pCC is positioned either posteriorly (arrow) or posteriorly and laterally (arrowheads) relative to aCC. This positioning is disarrayed in the mutant; pCCs positioned posteromedially (wide arrow) or directly laterally (open arrows) are indicated. (Q,R) Anti-ß-gal staining; the temperature-sensitive eve allele ID19 kept at the restrictive temperature during nervous system development after allowing segmentation to occur at the permissive temperature (see Materials and methods for details). (Q) eveID19 homozygous mutant; note that many more axons extend laterally than in {Delta}RP2A/{Delta}RP2A (compare with F), indicating that eveID19 does not act as a complete null allele in the nervous system. (R) A single copy of eveID19 with one copy of {Delta}RP2A; note that the phenotype is more severe than that of eveID19 homozygotes (Q) and less severe than that of {Delta}RP2A/{Delta}RP2A (F): fewer pCC axons crossed the midline and more axons turned laterally than in F. Scale bar (same size as that in B): 20 µm in C,D; 30 µm in all other panels except A,B,M,N.

 


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Fig. 4. Single-cell labelings of wild-type and mutant RP2, aCC and pCC neurons. RP2, aCC and pCC neurons (green) were anterogradely labeled (using Lucifer Yellow) in late stage 16 wild-type (A,E,H) and RP2 mutant (B-D,F,G,I,J) embryos. The neuropile was visualized with anti-HRP antibodies and is shown in blue. (A) In the wild type, the RP2 cell body is normally located medially on the anterior part of the anterior commissure. The RP2 axon exits the CNS via the pISN (arrow). Dendritic arbors (arrowhead) emerge from the proximal axon, mainly anteriorly, but frequently also, although to a lesser extent, posteriorly (not shown here). (B-D) Three of the most frequent morphological classes of mutant RP2 neurons exhibiting (B) relatively normal morphology with axon (arrow) exiting the CNS via the pISN and with dendritic arbors (arrowheads); (C) contralateral axonal projection; (D) anterior axonal (arrow) and dendritic (arrowhead) projections. (E) Axons (arrow) of wild-type aCC neurons exit via the aISN. Dendrites (arrowhead) extend from the proximal axon mostly anteriorly as well as contralaterally through the posterior commissure. (F,G) Two examples of mutant aCC neurons: axons fail to exit the CNS; the neuron in F still reflects the normal bipolar geometry of aCC. (H) Wild-type pCC neurons extend their axons (arrow) anteriorly for many segments along a medial fascicle. (I,J) Most mutant pCC neurons are relatively wild-type in appearance (I), although a fraction shows midline crossing in the next anterior commissure (J, arrow). All images are projections of confocal z-stacks. Anterior is towards the left. Triangles indicate the ventral midline, `AC' the anterior and `PC' the posterior commissure. Numbers indicate the fraction of labeled cells in the morphological class represented by the images. Scale bar: 10 µm in A-C,E,F; 16 µm in D,G-J.

 


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Fig. 5. Without Eve function, most RP2 and aCC axons do not reach the muscle field. The combination of RN2-Gal4 and UASCD8GFP transgenes (two copies each) was placed in either a wild-type (left column) or a {Delta}RP2A/{Delta}RP2C mutant background (right column). Stage 16 embryos are shown, anterior towards the left, and dorsal upwards (except A and B, which are centered on the ventral midline). (A,B) Overview of the CNS. (C,D) GFP in the muscle field. Note that in the mutant, only a few axons are visible, and that they do not reach to the dorsal muscle field. The yellow arrow indicates the same lateral position in all panels (D,F,H are a more ventral view in order to show the small amount of axonal outgrowth that occurs near the edge of the CNS). (E,F) Nomarski view of C,D, respectively. (G) Merged image of C and E. (H) Merged image of D and F. (I-L) Anti-Fas2 staining. (J,L) Higher magnification of I,K, respectively. Note the attachment of some axons to DO2 muscles in both the wild type and the mutant (arrowheads; neuromuscular junctions to DA2 are also present, but are not visible here), but that attachments to DO1 and DA1 (only DO1 is visible here) are barely formed in the mutant (arrows). Scale bars in B and L (equal in size): 50 µm in A-I,K; 20 µm in J,L.

 


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Fig. 6. The repression function of Eve is required for normal axonal morphology. All embryos carry both the RN2-Gal4 and UAS-{tau}lacZ transgenes (marking RP2, aCC and pCC) in an RP2 mutant background, and were stained with anti-ß-gal. (A) {Delta}RP2A/{Delta}RP2B (no Eve protein expressed in the marked cells). Scale bar: 20 µm. (B-J) Embryos contain in addition to the genotype in A, one copy of an eve transgene expressing the following modified Eve proteins: (B) Eve HD only (domain `H' in map at top; note that there is some rescue of lateral axonal outgrowth); (C) Eve N-terminus plus HD (domains `N' and `H' in map; note the slight rescue, similar to B); (D) the entire Eve protein without the Groucho interaction domain (`LFKPY' in map; note the considerable but incomplete rescue); (E) the Eve protein without the Atrophin interaction domain (`R' in map; note the considerable but incomplete rescue); (F) full-length Eve (note the essentially complete rescue, including cell body positioning); (G) Eve HD fused with repressor domain from En (Eve domain `H' plus En amino acids 1-298; note the essentially complete rescue); (H) Tc-Eve (from Tribolium; note the essentially complete rescue); (I) Sa-Eve (from grasshopper; note the near-complete rescue); and (J) Evx1 (from mouse; note the near-complete rescue).

 


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Fig. 7. Eve exhibits active repression function in neurons. (A) The transgenes used here (see Materials and methods for details). (B) GFP expression driven by the first transgene. (C) GFP expression from the same transgene in the presence of the Gal4-EveRC repressor driven by the second transgene. Note that the intensity in RP2 (thin arrow) and a/pCC (wide arrow) is reduced compared with that in the internal control EL neurons (laterally located clusters, out of focus), where the repressor is not expressed. Yellow scale bar: 20 µm in B,C. (D) ß-gal expression driven by the third transgene. (E) ß-gal expression from the same transgene in the presence of the Gal4-EveRC repressor driven by the fourth transgene. Note that the intensity in U/CQ neurons (arrow) is reduced compared with that in EL neurons, where the repressor is not expressed. Black scale bar: 20 µm in D,E.

 


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Fig. 8. In RP2 and aCC neurons lacking eve function, derepression of Drosophila Hb9 expression correlates with mutant axonal morphology, and expression of 22C10 antigen is reduced. All embryos carry both the RN2-Gal4 and UAS-{tau}lacZ transgenes. (A-D) Drosophila Hb9 expression with varying degrees of rescue of the RP2 mutant; anti-Hb9 staining (black) followed by anti-ß-gal staining (brown). Scale bar in A (black): 20 µm. (A) Wild-type-Eve rescued embryos. Note that Hb9 is not expressed in neurons that have a normal axonal morphology (green arrow), while RP2s that extend an axon posteriorly (abnormally) have weak Hb9 expression (arrows). (B) {Delta}RP2A mutant. Note that both RP2s (black arrows) and aCCs (yellow arrow) ectopically express Hb9 (although pCCs do not). (C) {Delta}RP2A mutant rescued with one copy of the EveH transgene (expressing the Eve HD only, see Fig. 6C). Note that many RP2s (black arrows) and aCCs (yellow arrow) ectopically express Hb9, but some RP2s do not (green arrow). (D) {Delta}RP2A mutant rescued with one copy of the Eve{Delta}C transgene (expressing Eve without its Gro-dependent repressor domain, see Fig. 6D). Note that Hb9 is derepressed in the subset of neurons that show abnormal axonal phenotypes (RP2, black arrows; aCC, yellow arrows), but not in those that show a normal axonal morphology (green arrow; see text for more details). (E,F) In wild-type embryos, 22C10 antigen (green staining in E-H) is expressed in aCC (yellow arrow) and RP2 (green arrow), but not in pCC (which is immediately posterior to each aCC and stains only for ß-gal, red in F; F is a merged image of 22C10 and ß-gal staining, so that the overlap appears yellow, here and in H). (G,H) in the {Delta}RP2A mutant, expression of 22C10 antigen is reduced relative to the wild type, especially in aCC (yellow arrow), but probably also in RP2 (green arrows). Scale bar in H (yellow): 20 µm in E-H.

 





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