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Published Online June 1, 2006
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1128650

Research Articles

Submitted on April 12, 2006
Accepted on May 25, 2006

Hox Control of Organ Size by Regulation of Morphogen Production and Mobility

Michael A. Crickmore 1 and Richard S. Mann 2*

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
2 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, HHSC 1104, 701 W. 168th St., New York, NY 10032, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Richard S. Mann , E-mail: rsm10{at}columbia.edu

Selector genes modify developmental pathways to sculpt animal body parts. Although body parts differ in size, the ways in which selector genes create size differences are unknown. We have studied how the Drosophila Hox gene Ultrabithorax (Ubx) limits the size of the haltere which, by the end of larval development, has 5-fold fewer cells than the wing. We find that Ubx controls haltere size by restricting both the transcription and mobility of the morphogen Decapentaplegic (Dpp). Ubx restricts Dpp's distribution in the haltere by increasing the levels of the Dpp receptor, thickveins. Because morphogens control tissue growth in many contexts, these findings provide a potentially general mechanism for how selector genes modify organ sizes.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)