Temporal and spatial expression of homeotic genes is important for segment-specific neuroblast 6-4 lineage formation in Drosophila

Mol Cells. 2006 Jun 30;21(3):436-42.

Abstract

Different proliferation of neuroblast 6-4 (NB6-4) in the thorax and abdomen produces segmental specific expression pattern of several neuroblast marker genes. NB6-4 is divided to form four medialmost cell body glia (MM-CBG) per segment in thorax and two MM-CBG per segment in abdomen. As homeotic genes determine the identities of embryonic segments along theA/P axis, we investigated if temporal and specific expression of homeotic genes affects MM-CBG patterns in thorax and abdomen. A Ubx loss-of-function mutation was found to hardly affect MM-CBG formation, whereas abd-A and Abd-B caused the transformation of abdominal MM-CBG to their thoracic counterparts. On the other hand, gain-of-function mutants of Ubx, abd-A and Abd-B genes reduced the number of thoracic MM-CBG, indicating that thoracic MM-CBG resembled abdominal MM-CBG. However, mutations in Polycomb group (PcG) genes, which are negative transregulators of homeotic genes, did not cause the thoracic to abdominal MM-CBG pattern transformation although the number of MM-CBG in a few per-cent of embryos were partially reduced or abnormally patterned. Our results indicate that temporal and spa-tial expression of the homeotic genes is important to determine segmental-specificity of NB6-4 daughter cells along the anterior-posterior (A/P) axis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Abdomen / embryology
  • Animals
  • Drosophila Proteins / genetics
  • Drosophila Proteins / metabolism*
  • Drosophila melanogaster / embryology*
  • Drosophila melanogaster / genetics
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian / cytology
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian / physiology
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Homeodomain Proteins / genetics
  • Homeodomain Proteins / metabolism*
  • Morphogenesis / genetics
  • Neuroglia / cytology
  • Neuroglia / metabolism
  • Neurons / cytology*
  • Neurons / metabolism
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics
  • Nuclear Proteins / metabolism*
  • Polycomb Repressive Complex 1
  • Thoracic Nerves / cytology
  • Thorax / embryology
  • Transcription Factors / genetics
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism*

Substances

  • Abd-B proteins, Drosophila
  • Drosophila Proteins
  • Homeodomain Proteins
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Pc protein, Drosophila
  • Transcription Factors
  • Ubx protein, Drosophila
  • abd-A protein, Drosophila
  • Polycomb Repressive Complex 1