QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online August 10, 2007

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?

Worming a way into cell fate evolution

Studies into vulva formation in nematodes have provided insights into key developmental mechanisms and their evolution. Now, on p. 3111, Yi and Sommer reveal that different regulatory networks specify the cells that form the vulva (the vulva equivalence group, VEG) in Pristionchus pacificus and Caenorhabditis elegans. In both nematodes, establishment of the VEG from the middle of the ventral epidermis requires the Hox gene lin-39. In C. elegans, the anterior and posterior non-vulval epidermal cells fuse with the hypodermis (a process indirectly regulated by lin-39) but, in P. pacificus, these cells die. Yi and Sommer isolated gev-2, a vulvaless mutant of P. pacificus, and show that gev-2 is the P. pacificus pax-3 gene (Ppa-pax-3). Ppa-pax-3 is a direct target of Ppa-LIN-39 and regulates the survival of the VEG precursors but induces the death of the posterior epidermal cells, they report. Thus, a different regulatory network in P. pacificus specifies the VEG than in C. elegans, a finding that sheds new light on the evolution of fate specification.

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

Related articles in Development:

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
Development 2007 134: 3111-3119. [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?