PUBLICATION
Antagonistic role of vega1 and bozozok/dharma homeobox genes in organizer formation
- Authors
- Kawahara, A., Wilm, T., Solnica-Krezel, L., and Dawid, I.B.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-001027-7
- Date
- 2000
- Source
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97(22): 12121-12126 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Dawid, Igor B., Kawahara, Atsuo, Solnica-Krezel, Lilianna, Wilm, Thomas
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Animals
- Body Patterning*
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
- Homeodomain Proteins/chemistry
- Homeodomain Proteins/genetics*
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish Proteins*
- PubMed
- 11050240 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Citation
Kawahara, A., Wilm, T., Solnica-Krezel, L., and Dawid, I.B. (2000) Antagonistic role of vega1 and bozozok/dharma homeobox genes in organizer formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 97(22):12121-12126.
Abstract
During zebrafish development, zygotic gene expression initiated at the midblastula transition converts maternal information on embryo polarity into a transcriptional read-out. Expression of a homeobox gene, vega1, is activated at midblastula transition in all blastomeres, but is down-regulated dorsally before gastrulation. Ubiquitous expression of vega1 is maintained in bozozok mutants, in which the dorsal-specific homeobox gene bozozok/dharma (boz/dha) is disrupted and organizer formation is impaired. Vega1 inhibits expression of boz/dha and organizer-specific genes, and causes ventralization resulting in a headless phenotype. In contrast, VP16-vega1, a fusion including the Vega1 homeodomain and VP16 activation domain, elicits ectopic expression of organizer genes and suppresses several aspects of the boz mutant phenotype. We propose that boz/dha-dependent down-regulation of vega1 in the dorsal region is an early essential step in organizer formation in zebrafish.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping