Regulation and function of the Hox gene Ultrabithorax in the late embryonic central nervous system of Drosophila

中枢神经系统代表着最复杂程度和细胞多样性最高的器官，因为在这里需要满足控制运动、摄食、呼吸和生殖的不同区域要求。了解这种形态和功能多样性是如何在发育过程中产生的，这是生物学中的基本挑战之一。同源异型基因编码一类重要的转录因子，调节沿身体前后轴线的细胞多样性。然而，调节神经系统中同源异型基因表达的分子机制，以及这些基因在神经系统发育过程中所发挥的功能，在很大程度上是未知的。果蝇是发育生物学研究中应用广泛的模式生物。在拟议的项目中，将研究同源基因Ultrabithorax在果蝇胚胎中枢神经系统发育中的调控和功能。我们将研究最重要的超级胸腔蛋白变种之间的差异，考察不同变种是如何产生的，以及它们之间的功能差异。

The central nervous system represents the organ with the highest degree of complexity and cell diversity, as here diverse regional requirements for control of locomotion, feeding, respiration and reproduction need to be fulfilled. Understanding how this morphological and functional diversity arises during development is one of the fundamental challenges in biology. Homeotic genes encode one important class of transcription factors that regulate cell diversity along the anterior-posterior body axis. However, molecular mechanisms regulating homeotic gene expression in the nervous system, and the functions that these genes exert during development of the nervous system are largely unknown. The fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster is a widely used model organism for research in developmental biology. In the proposed project, regulation and function of the homeotic gene Ultrabithorax in the Drosophila embryonic central nervous system development will be investigated. The differences between the most important variants of the Ultrabithorax protein will be examined, looking both at how the different variants are generated and at the functional differences between them.