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


Development 134, 3111-3119 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007


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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.


Figure 1
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Fig. 1. Schematic summary of ventral epidermal cell fate specification in P. pacificus and C. elegans wild-type and mutant animals. The ventral epidermis of hermaphrodites and males derives from 12 ectoblasts, named P(1-12).p according to their anteroposterior position. The 12 cells are equally distributed between the pharynx and rectum. (A-E) Cell fate specification in the hermaphrodite. (A) C. elegans wild-type. The vulva is formed from the progeny of the 1° (blue ovals) and 2° (red ovals) vulva precursor cells. 3° cells (yellow ovals) are competent to form vulval tissue, but remain epidermal under wild-type conditions. In C. elegans, P(1,2,9-11).p fuse (`F', white circles) with the hypodermis and are not competent to form part of the vulva. P12.pa is a special cell called hyp12 and forms part of the rectum. (B) In Cel-lin-39 mutants, positional information for the formation of the vulva equivalence group is missing and P(3-8).p fuse with the hypodermis, as do their lineage counterparts in the anterior and posterior body region. (C) In P. pacificus, P(1-4,9-11).p die as a result of programmed cell death (X) and reduce the size of the vulva equivalence group further. P(5-7).p have a 2°-1°-2° pattern, as is also observed in C. elegans, and P8.p is a special epidermal cell (black oval), which is designated as a 4° cell fate. (D) In Ppa-lin-39 mutants, the vulva equivalence group is not formed and P(5-8).p die as a result of programmed cell death (`X'). (E) The Ppa-pax-3 mutants have opposite effects on the Pn.p cells in the central and the posterior body region: P(5-8).p undergo ectopic cell death, whereas P(9-11).p often survive. `E' denotes epidermal cell fate. (F-J) Cell fate specification in males. (F) In C. elegans, P(1-8).p fuse (white circles) with the hypodermis. P10.p and P11.p divide multiple times and form the hook (`H') and associated interneurons (`I'). P9.p remains epidermal, but has been shown to be able to replace P10.p after cell ablation of the latter. (G) In Cel-mab-5 mutants, P(9-11).p fuse with the hypodermis, and no hook is formed. (H) In P. pacificus, P(1-8).p undergo programmed cell death and P(9-11).p development resembles the pattern observed in C. elegans. (I) In Ppa-mab-5 mutants, P(1-11).p die as a result of programmed cell death, suggesting that mab-5 provides positional information for P(9-11).p specification in both species. (J) In Ppa-pax-3 mutants, no patterning differences are observed.

 

Figure 2
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Fig. 2. Model of the regulation of cell fusion and cell death in the ventral epidermis in C. elegans and P. pacificus hermaphrodites. (A) Model of cell fusion regulation in the ventral epidermis of C. elegans. lin-39 is transcriptionally regulated by EGF and WNT signaling. Several studies have suggested that LIN-39 regulates the expression of egl-18 and elt-6, which encode GATA transcription factors, which in turn regulates expression of the cell fusion effector gene eff-1. (B) Based on data described in this study, Ppa-LIN-39 acts upstream of Ppa-pax-3. (C) Model of P. pacificus cell fate specification in the ventral epidermis of the hermaphrodite. Positional information subdivides the 12 ventral epidermal cells of P. pacificus into at least five distinct areas. P(5-8).p (red box) are regulated by Ppa-LIN-39 and Ppa-PAX-3, as described in this study. P(9-11).p (yellow box) die from programmed cell death (PCD) and Ppa-pax-3 is the first gene shown to be involved in this regulatory process. P12.pa is a special cell that forms part of the rectum. In C. elegans, it is regulated by the posterior Hox gene egl-5 (green box). P(3,4).p (blue box) die from PCD and are specifically regulated by Ppa-HAIRY and Ppa-GROUCHO, which downregulate Ppa-lin-39 expression in these cells. P(1,2).p (pink box) also die from PCD, but no specific regulators have been obtained.

 

Figure 3
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Fig. 3. Ppa-pax-3 mutant animals are generation vulvaless. Nomarski photomicrographs of early (A,B) and late (C,D) stages of the vulva in P. pacificus wild-type (A,C) and Ppa-pax-3 mutant (B,D) animals. (A) P. pacificus wild-type animal in the early J3 stage showing P(5-8).p before the onset of cell divisions. (B) Ppa-pax-3 mutants in a similar developmental stage. P(5-8).p are absent. (C) P. pacificus wild-type animal in the mid J4 stage. A vulva has been formed. In this plane of focus, the progeny of the 2° cells P(5,7).p are visible. (D) Ppa-pax-3 mutants in a similar developmental stage. No vulva was formed.

 

Figure 4
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Fig. 4. Molecular cloning and gene structure of Ppa-pax-3, and the alignment of PAX-3-type proteins. (A) Map position of Ppa-gev-2 (Ppa-pax-3) on chromosome II close to the molecular marker S98. The three BAC clones 1-E10, 17-D02 and 17-O15 define a physical interval for the gene. (B) Protein domain structure of Ppa-pax-3. Ppa-pax-3 contains a bona-fide paired domain (PD) with the PAI and RED subdomains, as well as an octapeptide and a homeodomain (HD). (C) Ppa-pax-3 cDNA sequence as obtained from 5' and 3' RACE experiments. Conceptual translation starts with the first in-frame ATG codon after the SL1 splice acceptor site. Introns are indicated by black triangles. The breakpoints of the C-terminal deletion of tu214 are indicated by arrowheads. The mutation of tu358 results in an amino acid replacement from His to Arg and is indicated by an arrow. The PD domain is boxed, the octapeptide is underlined and the HD is highlighted. (D) Amino acid comparison between P. pacificus, C. elegans, mouse and human PAX-3-type proteins, indicating a strong amino acid sequence conservation of all protein domains.

 

Figure 5
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Fig. 5. Ppa-pax-3 transcript levels are reduced in Ppa-lin-39 mutants compared with P. pacificus wild type. (A) PCR amplification and sequence analysis of Ppa-pax-3 cDNA clones reveals the existence of two isoforms. The Ppa-pax-3b isoform misses the N-terminal PAI subdomain of the paired domain (PD), but contains the RED subdomain, the octapeptide and the homeodomain (HD). Both isoforms are trans-spliced to an SL1 leader sequence. (B) Ppa-pax-3 transcript levels in staged P. pacificus wild-type animals. Transcript levels are given as arbitrary concentration unit ratios between Ppa-pax-3 and Ppa-ß-tubulin as an internal standard. RNA was prepared from 100 animals and experiments were carried out in triplicate. Error bars represent standard deviations. (C) Relative Ppa-lin-39 transcript levels in wild-type and Ppa-pax-3(tu214) mutant animals. Ppa-lin-39 transcript levels are unchanged. (D) Relative Ppa-pax-3 transcript levels in wild-type and Ppa-lin-39(tu29) mutant animals. Ppa-pax-3 transcript levels are decreased from approximately 40 to 5 concentration units.

 

Figure 6
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Fig. 6. Ppa-LIN-39 and its Extradenticle-like cofactor Ppa-CEH-20 can bind to the Ppa-pax-3 promoter in vitro. (A) Putative HOX-PBC-binding sites in the Ppa-pax-3 promoter. SITEBLAST analysis of the Ppa-pax-3 promoter including 3 kb of upstream sequence revealed one putative binding site (arrowhead). Beneath, we show the nucleotide sequence of the predicted binding site `a' with the core binding site TGATGAATCG (wild type, wt). For electrophoretic mobility shift assays this core binding site has been mutated (mt) to TtgcGAcgCG. (B) In electrophoretic mobility shift assays, Ppa-LIN-39 binds to a Drosophila Antennapedia control oligonucleotide alone and in conjunction with Ppa-CEH-20. Ppa-LIN-39 does not bind Ppa-pax-3 oligonucleotides on its own (lane 6), but strongly binds together with Ppa-CEH-20 (lane 7). Ppa-LIN-39 and Ppa-CEH-20 do not bind to the mutated site (SaM, lane 9). (C) Phylogenetic footprint of the HOX-PBC-binding site in the Ppa-pax-3 promoter. The sequence from position -2216 to -2132 of Ppa-pax-3 is shown. Comparison of P. pacificus (P.pa), Pristionchus sp. 11 (P.11) and Pristionchus maupasi (P.ma). The consensus HOX-PBC-binding site is indicated by a shaded box, other types of consensus binding sites are boxed. Boxes 1 and 2 are HOX monomer binding sites; box 3 is a HMG-binding site. (Bottom) The tree shows the phylogenetic relationship of these three species.

 





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