Abstract
The sister blastomeres ABp and ABa are equipotent at the beginning of the 4-cell stage in C. elegans embryos, but soon become committed to different fates. We show that the glp-1 gene, a homolog of the Notch gene of Drosophila, functions in two distinct cell-cell interactions that specify the ABp and ABa fates. These interactions both require maternal expression of glp-1. We show that a second maternal gene, apx-1, functions with glp-1 only in the specification of the ABp fate and that apx-1 can encode a protein homologous to the Delta protein of Drosophila. Our results suggest how interactions mediated by glp-1 and apx-1 contribute to the establishment of the dorsal-ventral axis in the early C. elegans embryo.
Publication types
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Comparative Study
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Amino Acid Sequence
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Animals
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Base Sequence
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Blastomeres / cytology
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Caenorhabditis elegans / embryology*
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Caenorhabditis elegans / genetics
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Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins*
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Cell Communication
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Cell Differentiation
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Cloning, Molecular
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Embryonic Induction
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Genes, Helminth
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Membrane Glycoproteins / genetics*
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Membrane Proteins / genetics*
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Molecular Sequence Data
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Morphogenesis
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Pharynx / embryology
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Receptors, Notch
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Sequence Alignment
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Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
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Sodium Channels*
Substances
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Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
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Glp-1 protein, C elegans
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Membrane Glycoproteins
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Membrane Proteins
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Receptors, Notch
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Sodium Channels
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apx-1 protein, C elegans