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First published online March 24, 2005

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A Crystallin clear view of eye evolution

At first glance, the eyes of chicks and Drosophila have little in common. However, on p. 1895, Blanco and co-workers report that at least one of the genetic regulatory circuits involved in eye development has been largely conserved during evolution. In chick, lens-specific regulation of the 1-crystallin gene is achieved by the cooperative binding of the transcription factors PAX6 and SOX2 to the 30 bp DC5 fragment within the gene's enhancer. Using reporter genes, Blanco et al. show that the DC5 fragment is active in the Drosophila compound eye, specifically in the cone cells that secrete Crystallin. Other studies, including a loss-of-function analysis, indicate that the DC5 element in Drosophila is regulated by the cooperative binding of D-PAX2 and SOXN. Since PAX6 and PAX2 derive from the same ancestor, this indicates that while Pax6 took over Crystallin regulation in vertebrates during evolution, Pax2 retained this function in flies.

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Related articles in Development:

Functional analysis of the chicken 1-crystallin enhancer activity in Drosophila reveals remarkable evolutionary conservation between chicken and fly

Jorge Blanco, Franck Girard, Yusuke Kamachi, Hisato Kondoh, and Walter J. Gehring
Development 2005 132: 1895-1905. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?