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Activation of posterior gap gene expression in the Drosophila blastoderm

Nature volume 376, pages 253–256 (1995)Cite this article

Abstract

THE process of body prepatterning during Drosophila blastoderm formation relies on the localized activities of zygotic segmentation genes, which are controlled by asymmetrically distributed maternal determinants1,2. The anterior determinant bicoid, a homeodomain transcription factor3,4, forms an anterior-to-posterior concentration gradient1-4. It interacts with the maternal transcription factor hunchback5 to activate the anterior zygotic patterning genes, including the central gap gene Krüppel (Kr)6. In contrast, the posterior maternal system1,2 does not provide such a decisive transcription factor, but rather prevents the repressor hunchback from acting in the posterior half so that the gap genes giant (gt) and knirps (kni) are activated by an as yet unknown transcription factor2,7. Here we show that caudal, a conserved homeodomain protein that forms a posterior-to-anterior concentration gradient8,9, and the anterior determinant bicoid cooperate to form a partly redundant activator system in the posterior region of the embryo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Molekulare Entwicklungsbiologie, Max-Planck-lnstitut fur biophysikalische Chemie, Postfach 2841, D-37018, Gottingen, Germany

    Rolando Rivera-Pomar, Heike Taubert & Herbert Jäckle

  2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Xiangyi Lu & Norbert Perrimon

  3. Department of Biochemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA

    Xiangyi Lu

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  1. Rolando Rivera-Pomar
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  2. Xiangyi Lu
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  4. Heike Taubert
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  5. Herbert Jäckle
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Rivera-Pomar, R., Lu, X., Perrimon, N. et al. Activation of posterior gap gene expression in the Drosophila blastoderm. Nature 376, 253–256 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/376253a0

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