dachshund encodes a nuclear protein required for normal eye and leg development in Drosophila

Development ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 120 (12) ◽  
pp. 3473-3486 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Mardon ◽  
N.M. Solomon ◽  
G.M. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Cell Fate ◽  
Posterior Margin ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Nuclear Protein ◽  
Eye Disc ◽  
Leg Development ◽  
Disc Cells ◽  
Neural Specification ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc

Neural specification and differentiation in the Drosophila eye sweep across the unpatterned epithelial monolayer of the eye imaginal disc following a developmental wave termed the morphogenetic furrow. The furrow begins at the posterior margin of the eye imaginal disc and moves anteriorly as a linear front. Progression of the furrow requires the function of hedgehog, which encodes a secreted signaling protein. We characterize mutations in dachshund, a gene that encodes a novel nuclear protein required for normal cell-fate determination of imaginal disc cells. In the absence of dachshund function, cells at the posterior margin of the eye disc fail to follow a retinal differentiation pathway and appear to adopt a cuticle fate instead. These cells are therefore unable to respond to pattern propagation signals such as hedgehog and furrow initiation does not occur. In contrast, cells in more anterior portions of the eye disc are able to differentiate as retinal cells in the absence of dachshund activity and respond normally to patterning signals. These results suggest that posterior margin cells are distinct from other cells of the eye imaginal disc by early stages of development. dachshund is also necessary for proper differentiation of a subset of segments in the developing leg. Null mutations in dachshund result in flies with no eyes and shortened legs.

decapentaplegic and wingless are regulated by eyes absent and eyegone and interact to direct the pattern of retinal differentiation in the eye disc

Development ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 125 (18) ◽  
pp. 3741-3751 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.J. Hazelett ◽  
M. Bourouis ◽  
U. Walldorf ◽  
J.E. Treisman
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Margin ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Anterior Margin ◽  
Growth Factor Receptor ◽  
Eyes Absent ◽  
Retinal Tissue ◽  
Eye Disc ◽  
Epidermal Growth ◽  
Lateral Margins ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc

Signaling by the secreted hedgehog, decapentaplegic and wingless proteins organizes the pattern of photoreceptor differentiation within the Drosophila eye imaginal disc; hedgehog and decapentaplegic are required for differentiation to initiate at the posterior margin and progress across the disc, while wingless prevents it from initiating at the lateral margins. Our analysis of these interactions has shown that initiation requires both the presence of decapentaplegic and the absence of wingless, which inhibits photoreceptor differentiation downstream of the reception of the decapentaplegic signal. However, wingless is unable to inhibit differentiation driven by activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor pathway. The effect of wingless is subject to regional variations in control, as the anterior margin of the disc is insensitive to wingless inhibition. The eyes absent and eyegone genes encode members of a group of nuclear proteins required to specify the fate of the eye imaginal disc. We show that both eyes absent and eyegone are required for normal activation of decapentaplegic expression at the posterior and lateral margins of the disc, and repression of wingless expression in presumptive retinal tissue. The requirement for eyegone can be alleviated by inhibition of the wingless signaling pathway, suggesting that eyegone promotes eye development primarily by repressing wingless. These results provide a link between the early specification and later differentiation of the eye disc.

scholarly journals Specification of cell fate in the developing eye of Drosophila

Development ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 123-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Hafen ◽  
Konrad Basler
Keyword(s):  
Tyrosine Kinase ◽  
Cell Fate ◽  
Photoreceptor Cell ◽  
Nuclear Protein ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Photoreceptor Cells ◽  
Positional Information ◽  
Cellular Interactions ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc

Determination of cell fate in the developing eye of Drosophila depends on cellular interactions. In the eye imaginal disc, an initially unpatterned epithelial sheath of cells, single cells are specified in regular intervals to become the R8 photoreceptor cells. Genes such as Notch and scabrous participate in this process suggesting that specification of ommatidial founder cells and the formation of bristles in the adult epidermis involve a similar mechanism known as lateral inhibition. The subsequent steps of ommatidial assembly involve a different mechanism: undetermined cells read their position based on the contacts they make with neighbors that have already begun to differentiate. The development of the R7 photoreceptor cell is best understood. The key role seems to be played by sevenless, a receptor tyrosine kinase on the surface of the R7 precursor. It transmits the positional information – most likely encoded by boss on the neighboring R8 cell membrane – into the cell via its tyrosine kinase that activates a signal transduction cascade. Two components of this cascade – Sos and sina – have been identified genetically, sina encodes a nuclear protein whose expression is not limited to R7. Constitutive activation of the sevenless kinase by overexpression results in the diversion of other ommatidial cells into the R7 pathway, suggesting that activation of the sevenless signalling pathway is sufficient to specify R7 development.

Role of decapentaplegic in initiation and progression of the morphogenetic furrow in the developing Drosophila retina

Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Chanut ◽  
U. Heberlein
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Margin ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Photoreceptor Cells ◽  
Morphogenetic Furrow ◽  
Retinal Differentiation ◽  
Eye Disc ◽  
Forward Edge ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc ◽  
Precise Role

Morphogenesis in the Drosophila retina initiates at the posterior margin of the eye imaginal disc by an unknown mechanism. Upon initiation, a wave of differentiation, its forward edge marked by the morphogenetic furrow (MF), proceeds anteriorly across the disc. Progression of the MF is driven by hedgehog (hh), expressed by differentiating photoreceptor cells. The TGF-beta homolog encoded by decapentaplegic (dpp) is expressed at the disc's posterior margin prior to initiation and in the furrow, under the control of hh, during MF progression. While dpp has been implicated in eye disc growth and morphogenesis, its precise role in retinal differentiation has not been determined. To address the role of dpp in initiation and progression of retinal differentiation we analyzed the consequences of reduced and increased dpp function during eye development. We find that dpp is not only required for normal MF initiation, but is sufficient to induce ectopic initiation of differentiation. Inappropriate initiation is normally inhibited by wingless (wg). Loss of dpp function is accompanied by expansion of wg expression, while increased dpp function leads to loss of wg transcription. In addition, dpp is required to maintain, and sufficient to induce, its own expression along the disc's margins. We postulate that dpp autoregulation and dpp-mediated inhibition of wg expression are required for the coordinated regulation of furrow initiation and progression. Finally, we show that in the later stages of retinal differentiation, reduction of dpp function leads to an arrest in MF progression.

A molecular basis for transdetermination in Drosophila imaginal discs: interactions between wingless and decapentaplegic signaling

Development ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 125 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
L. Maves ◽  
G. Schubiger
Keyword(s):  
Cell Fate ◽  
Molecular Basis ◽  
Regulatory Element ◽  
Ectopic Expression ◽  
Wing Development ◽  
Downstream Target ◽  
Leg Development ◽  
Disc Cells ◽  
Targeted Expression ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

We are investigating how Drosophila imaginal disc cells establish and maintain their appendage-specific determined states. We have previously shown that ectopic expression of wingless (wg) induces leg disc cells to activate expression of the wing marker Vestigial (Vg) and transdetermine to wing cells. Here we show that ectopic wg expression non-cell-autonomously induces Vg expression in leg discs and that activated Armadillo, a cytosolic transducer of the Wg signal, cell-autonomously induces Vg expression in leg discs, indicating that this Vg expression is directly activated by Wg signaling. We find that ubiquitous expression of wg in leg discs can induce only dorsal leg disc cells to express Vg and transdetermine to wing. Dorsal leg disc cells normally express high levels of decapentaplegic (dpp) and its downstream target, optomotor-blind (omb). We find that high levels of dpp expression, which are both necessary and sufficient for dorsal leg development, are required for wg-induced transdetermination. We show that dorsalization of ventral leg disc cells, through targeted expression of either dpp or omb, is sufficient to allow wg to induce Vg expression and wing fate. Thus, dpp and omb promote both dorsal leg cell fate as well as transdetermination-competent leg disc cells. Taken together, our results show that the Wg and Dpp signaling pathways cooperate to induce Vg expression and leg-towing transdetermination. We also show that a specific vg regulatory element, the vg boundary enhancer, is required for transdetermination. We propose that an interaction between Wg and Dpp signaling can explain why leg disc cells transdetermine to wing and that our results have implications for normal leg and wing development.

Hedgehog is an indirect regulator of morphogenetic furrow progression in the Drosophila eye disc

Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (17) ◽  
pp. 3233-3240 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.I. Strutt ◽  
M. Mlodzik
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Formation ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Morphogenetic Furrow ◽  
Anterior Edge ◽  
Eye Disc ◽  
Drosophila Eye ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc ◽  
Inductive Signal ◽  
Rate Of Movement

Pattern formation in the eye imaginal disc of Drosophila occurs in a wave that moves from posterior to anterior. The anterior edge of this wave is marked by a contracted band of cells known as the morphogenetic furrow, behind which photoreceptors differentiate. The movement of the furrow is dependent upon the secretion of the signalling protein Hedgehog (Hh) by more posterior cells, and it has been suggested that Hh acts as an inductive signal to induce cells to enter a furrow fate and begin differentiation. To further define the role of Hh in this process, we have analysed clones of cells lacking the function of the smoothened (smo) gene, which is required for transduction of the Hh signal and allows the investigation of the autonomous requirement for hh signalling. These experiments demonstrate that the function of hh in furrow progression is indirect. Cells that cannot receive/transduce the Hh signal are still capable of entering a furrow fate and differentiating normally. However, hh is required to promote furrow progression and regulate its rate of movement across the disc, since the furrow is significantly delayed in smo clones.

scholarly journals Dorsoventral patterning in the Drosophila retina by wingless

Development ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Heberlein ◽  
E.R. Borod ◽  
F.A. Chanut
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Margin ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Dorsoventral Patterning ◽  
Multiple Events ◽  
Ommatidial Rotation ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc ◽  
Anterior Posterior ◽  
Epithelial Growth

The eye imaginal disc displays dorsal-ventral (D-V) and anterior-posterior polarity prior to the onset of differentiation, which initiates at the intersection of the D-V midline with the posterior margin. As the wave of differentiation progresses anteriorly, additional asymmetry develops as ommatidial clusters rotate coordinately in opposite directions in the dorsal and ventral halves of the disc; this forms a line of mirror-image symmetry, the equator, which coincides with the D-V midline of the disc. How D-V pattern is established and how it relates to ommatidial rotation are unknown. Here we address this question by assaying the expression of various asymmetric markers under conditions that lead to ectopic differentiation, such as removal of patched or wingless function. We find that D-V patterning develops gradually and that wingless plays an important role in setting up this pattern. We show that wingless is necessary and sufficient to induce dorsal expression of the gene mirror prior to the start of differentiation and also to restrict the expression of the WR122 marker to differentiating photoreceptors near the equator. In addition, we find that manipulations in wingless expression shift the D-V axis of the disc as evidenced by changes in the expression domains of asymmetric markers, the position of the site of initiation and the equator, and the pattern of epithelial growth. Thus, Wg appears to coordinately regulate multiple events related to D-V patterning in the developing retina.

scholarly journals Analysis in Drosophila melanogaster of the Interaction Between Sex Combs Reduced and Extradenticle Activity in the Determination of Tarsus and Arista Identity

Genetics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 150 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-198
Author(s):  
Anthony Percival-Smith ◽  
Danielle J Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Imaginal Discs ◽  
Nuclear Accumulation ◽  
Sex Combs Reduced ◽  
Sex Combs ◽  
Disc Cells

Abstract Sex Combs Reduced (SCR) activity is proposed to be required cell nonautonomously for determination of tarsus identity, and Extradenticle (EXD) activity is required cell autonomously for determination of arista identity. Using the ability of Proboscipedia to inhibit the SCR activity required for determination of tarsus identity, we found that loss-of-EXD activity is epistatic to loss-of-SCR activity in tarsus vs. arista determination. This suggests that in the sequence leading to arista determination SCR activity is OFF while EXD activity is ON, and in the sequence leading to tarsus determination SCR activity is ON, which turns EXD activity OFF. Immunolocalization of EXD in early third-instar larval imaginal discs reveals that EXD is localized in the nuclei of antennal imaginal disc cells and localized in the cytoplasm of distal imaginal leg disc cells. We propose that EXD localized to the nucleus suppresses tarsus determination and activates arista determination. We further propose that in the mesodermal adepithelial cells of the leg imaginal discs, SCR is required for the synthesis of a tarsus-inducer that when secreted acts on the ectoderm cells inhibiting nuclear accumulation of EXD, such that tarsus determination is no longer suppressed and arista determination is no longer activated.

wingless inhibits morphogenetic furrow movement in the Drosophila eye disc

Development ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 121 (11) ◽  
pp. 3519-3527 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.E. Treisman ◽  
G.M. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Margin ◽  
Ectopic Expression ◽  
Spatial Localization ◽  
Morphogenetic Furrow ◽  
Differentiated Cells ◽  
Repetitive Process ◽  
Eye Disc ◽  
Drosophila Eye ◽  
Lateral Margins ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc

Differentiation of the Drosophila eye imaginal disc is an asynchronous, repetitive process which proceeds across the disc from posterior to anterior. Its propagation correlates with the expression of decapentaplegic at the front of differentiation, in the morphogenetic furrow. Both differentiation and decapentaplegic expression are maintained by Hedgehog protein secreted by the differentiated cells posterior to the furrow. However, their initiation at the posterior margin occurs prior to hedgehog expression by an unknown mechanism. We show here that the wingless gene contributes to the correct spatial localization of initiation. Initiation of the morphogenetic furrow is restricted to the posterior margin by the presence of wingless at the lateral margins; removal of wingless allows lateral initiation. Ectopic expression of wingless at the posterior margin can also inhibit normal initiation. In addition, the presence of wingless in the center of the disc can prevent furrow progression. These effects of wingless are achieved without altering the expression of decapentaplegic.

scholarly journals Hsc70 is required for endocytosis and clathrin function in Drosophila

2002 ◽  
Vol 159 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry C. Chang ◽  
Sherri L. Newmyer ◽  
Michael J. Hull ◽  
Melanie Ebersold ◽  
Sandra L. Schmid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutant Allele ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Dominant Negative ◽  
Dominant Negative Mutant ◽  
Eye Disc ◽  
Mutant Cells ◽  
Eye Imaginal Disc

By screening for Drosophila mutants exhibiting aberrant bride of sevenless (Boss) staining patterns on eye imaginal disc epithelia, we have recovered a point mutation in Hsc70-4, the closest homologue to bovine clathrin uncoating ATPase. Although the mutant allele was lethal, analysis of mutant clones generated by FLP/FRT recombination demonstrated that the Sevenless-mediated internalization of Boss was blocked in mutant Hsc70-4 eye disc epithelial cells. Endocytosis of other probes was also greatly inhibited in larval Garland cells. Immunostaining and EM analysis of the mutant cells revealed disruptions in the organization of endosomal/lysosomal compartments, including a substantial reduction in the number of clathrin-coated structures in Garland cells. The Hsc70-4 mutation also interacted genetically with a dominant-negative mutant of dynamin, a gene required for the budding of clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs). Consistent with these phenotypes, recombinant mutant Hsc70 proteins exhibited diminished clathrin uncoating activity in vitro. Together, these data provide genetic support for the long-suspected role of Hsc70 in clathrin-mediated endocytosis, at least in part by inhibiting the uncoating of CCVs.

Antagonistic activities of Suppressor of Hairless and Hairless control alternative cell fates in the Drosophila adult epidermis

Development ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 120 (6) ◽  
pp. 1433-1441 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Schweisguth ◽  
J.W. Posakony
Keyword(s):  
Cell Fate ◽  
Imaginal Disc ◽  
Sensory Organ ◽  
Cell Fate Decisions ◽  
Suppressor Of Hairless ◽  
Disc Cells ◽  
Sensory Organ Precursor ◽  
Fate Decision ◽  
Mutant Phenotypes ◽  
Proneural Cluster

Successive alternative cell fate choices in the imaginal disc epithelium lead to the differentiation of a relatively invariant pattern of multicellular adult sensory organs in Drosophila. We show here that the activity of Suppressor of Hairless is required for both the sensory organ precursor (SOP) versus epidermal cell fate decision, and for the trichogen (shaft) versus tormogen (socket) cell fate choice. Complete loss of Suppressor of Hairless function causes most proneural cluster cells to accumulate high levels of the achaete and Delta proteins and to adopt the SOP fate. Late or partial reduction in Suppressor of Hairless activity leads to the apparent transformation of the tormogen (socket) cell into a second trichogen (shaft) cell, producing a ‘double shaft’ phenotype. We find that overexpression of Suppressor of Hairless has the opposite phenotypic effects. SOP determination is prevented by an early excess of Suppressor of Hairless activity, while at a later stage, the trichogen (shaft) cell is transformed into a second tormogen (socket) cell, resulting in ‘double socket’ bristles. We conclude that, for two different cell fate decisions in adult sensory organ development, decreasing or increasing the level of Suppressor of Hairless function confers mutant phenotypes that closely resemble those associated with gain and loss of Hairless activity, respectively. These results, along with the intermediate SOP phenotype observed in Suppressor of Hairless; Hairless double mutant imaginal discs, suggest that the two genes act antagonistically to commit imaginal disc cells stably to alternative fates.

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