sem-4 promotes vulval cell-fate determination in Caenorhabditis elegans through regulation of lin-39 hox
sem-4 promotes vulval cell-fate determination in Caenorhabditis elegans through regulation of lin-39 hox
复制标题
DOI：
10.1006/dbio.2000.9774
复制
发表时间：
2000-08-15
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Han, M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Grant, K;Hanna-Rose, W;Han, M
秀丽隐杆线虫外阴细胞命运的决定需要许多基因产物的作用，包括RAS/Raf/MAPK信号级联和HOX基因LIN-39。在线虫中，扫描电子显微镜-4编码一种锌指蛋白，该蛋白先前在有性成肌细胞、体腔细胞和多个神经细胞系的命运决定中具有特定的作用(M.Basson和R.Horvitz，1996，gene Dev.10,1953-1965)。通过对我们在外阴缺陷突变体筛查中发现的sem-4的三个新等位基因的特征，我们确定sem-4活性的丧失导致次级外阴细胞谱系的异常规范。我们分析了sem-4与其他参与外阴分化的基因的相互作用，确定sem-4不直接在RAS介导的信号转导途径中发挥作用，而是与Lin-39密切相关并在其上游发挥作用，促进外阴细胞的命运。我们证明sem-4调控LIN-39的表达，并推测sem-4是外阴细胞命运决定通路中LIN-39的调节者，可能起到将LIN-39与传入信号联系起来的作用。(C)2000年学术出版社。
Vulval cell-fate determination in Caenorhabditis elegans requires the action of numerous gene products, including components of the Ras/Raf/MAPK signaling cascade and the hox gene lin-39. sem-4 encodes a zinc finger protein with previously characterized roles in fate specification of sex myoblasts, coelomocytes, and multiple neuronal lineages in C. elegans (M. Basson and R. Horvitz, 1996, Genes Dev. 10, 1953-1965). By characterizing three new alleles of sem-4 that we identified in a screen for vulval-defective mutants, we determined that loss of sem-4 activity results in abnormal specification of the secondary vulval cell lineages. We analyzed sem-4 interactions with other genes involved in vulval differentiation and determined that sem-4 does not function directly in the Ras-mediated signal transduction pathway but acts in close association with and upstream of lin-39 to promote vulval cell fate. We demonstrate that sem-4 regulates lin-39 expression and propose that sem-4 is a regulator of lin-39 in the vulval cell-fate determination pathway that may act to link lin-39 to incoming signals. (C) 2000 Academic Press.