Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 31 March 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5462, pp. 2476 - 2479
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5462.2476
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

bicoid-Independent Formation of Thoracic Segments in Drosophila

Ernst A. Wimmer, 1 Alan Carleton, 2 Phoebe Harjes, 2 Terry Turner, 2 Claude Desplan 2*

The maternal determinant Bicoid (Bcd) represents the paradigm of a morphogen that provides positional information for pattern formation. However, as bicoid seems to be a recently acquired gene in flies, the question was raised as to how embryonic patterning is achieved in organisms with more ancestral modes of development. Because the phylogenetically conserved Hunchback (Hb) protein had previously been shown to act as a morphogen in abdominal patterning, we asked which functions of Bcd could be performed by Hb. By reestablishing a proposed ancient regulatory circuitry in which maternal Hb controls zygotic hunchback expression, we show that Hb is able to form thoracic segments in the absence of Bcd.

1 Lehrstuhl Genetik, Universität Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany.
2 Department of Biology, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: claude.desplan{at}nyu.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Pdm and Castor close successive temporal identity windows in the NB3-1 lineage.
K. D. Tran and C. Q. Doe (2008)
Development 135, 3491-3499
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Antagonistic roles for Ultrabithorax and Antennapedia in regulating segment-specific apoptosis of differentiated motoneurons in the Drosophila embryonic central nervous system.
A. Rogulja-Ortmann, S. Renner, and G. M. Technau (2008)
Development 135, 3435-3445
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Spatial codes in dendritic BC1 RNA.
I. A. Muslimov, A. Iacoangeli, J. Brosius, and H. Tiedge (2006)
J. Cell Biol. 175, 427-439
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A major role for zygotic hunchback in patterning the Nasonia embryo.
M. A. Pultz, L. Westendorf, S. D. Gale, K. Hawkins, J. Lynch, J. N. Pitt, N. L. Reeves, J. C. Y. Yao, S. Small, C. Desplan, et al. (2005)
Development 132, 3705-3715
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Gene Regulatory Networks Special Feature: The role of binding site cluster strength in Bicoid-dependent patterning in Drosophila.
A. Ochoa-Espinosa, G. Yucel, L. Kaplan, A. Pare, N. Pura, A. Oberstein, D. Papatsenko, and S. Small (2005)
PNAS 102, 4960-4965
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Linear signaling in the Toll-Dorsal pathway of Drosophila: activated Pelle kinase specifies all threshold outputs of gene expression while the bHLH protein Twist specifies a subset.
A. Stathopoulos and M. Levine (2003)
Development 129, 3411-3419
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Hunchback is required for the specification of the early sublineage of neuroblast 7-3 in the Drosophila central nervous system.
T. Novotny, R. Eiselt, and J. Urban (2003)
Development 129, 1027-1036
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
BEST: A Novel Computational Approach for Comparing Gene Expression Patterns From Early Stages of Drosophila melanogaster Development.
S. Kumar, K. Jayaraman, S. Panchanathan, R. Gurunathan, A. Marti-Subirana, and S. J. Newfeld (2002)
Genetics 162, 2037-2047
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dorsoventral patterning is established in the telencephalon of mutants lacking both Gli3 and Hedgehog signaling.
M. Rallu, R. Machold, N. Gaiano, J. G. Corbin, A. P. McMahon, and G. Fishell (2002)
Development 129, 4963-4974
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
An anterior function for the Drosophila posterior determinant Pumilio.
C. Gamberi, D. S. Peterson, L. He, and E. Gottlieb (2002)
Development 129, 2699-2710
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The activity of the Drosophila morphogenetic protein Bicoid is inhibited by a domain located outside its homeodomain.
C. Zhao, A. York, F. Yang, D. J. Forsthoefel, V. Dave, D. Fu, D. Zhang, M. S. Corado, S. Small, M. A. Seeger, et al. (2002)
Development 129, 1669-1680
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Grasshopper hunchback expression reveals conserved and novel aspects of axis formation and segmentation.
N. H. Patel, D. C. Hayward, S. Lall, N. R. Pirkl, D. DiPietro, and E. E. Ball (2001)
Development 128, 3459-3472
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Function of bicoid and hunchback homologs in the basal cyclorrhaphan fly Megaselia (Phoridae).
M. Stauber, H. Taubert, and U. Schmidt-Ott (2000)
PNAS
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Function of bicoid and hunchback homologs in the basal cyclorrhaphan fly Megaselia (Phoridae).
M. Stauber, H. Taubert, and U. Schmidt-Ott (2000)
PNAS 97, 10844-10849
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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