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Eyg and Ey Pax proteins act by distinct transcriptional mechanisms in Drosophila development.

ABSTRACT: Drosophila has two pairs of Pax genes, ey/toy and eyg/toe, that play different functions during eye development. ey specifies eye fate, while eyg promotes cell proliferation. We have determined the molecular basis for the functional diversity of Eyg and Ey. Eyg and Ey act by distinct transcriptional mechanisms. They use different DNA-binding domains for target recognition. Most interestingly, Eyg acts exclusively as a repressor, whereas Ey is an activator. Several vertebrate Pax proteins are known to switch between activator and repressor activities, but none as repressors only. Eyg may be the first Pax protein as a dedicated repressor. Vertebrates produce a Pax6 isoform, Pax6-5a, differing from Pax6 in DNA-binding properties and functions and structurally similar to Eyg/Toe. We found that Pax6-5a acts as an activator like Ey, but has DNA-binding specificity like Eyg.

SUBMITTER: Yao JG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1176454 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Eyg and Ey Pax proteins act by distinct transcriptional mechanisms in Drosophila development.

Yao Jih-Guang JG Sun Y Henry YH

The EMBO journal 20050623 14

Drosophila has two pairs of Pax genes, ey/toy and eyg/toe, that play different functions during eye development. ey specifies eye fate, while eyg promotes cell proliferation. We have determined the molecular basis for the functional diversity of Eyg and Ey. Eyg and Ey act by distinct transcriptional mechanisms. They use different DNA-binding domains for target recognition. Most interestingly, Eyg acts exclusively as a repressor, whereas Ey is an activator. Several vertebrate Pax proteins are kno ...[more]

PMID: 15973436

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Project description:The protozoan Giardia lamblia differentiates from a pathogenic trophozoite into an infectious cyst to survive outside of the host. During encystation, genes encoding cyst wall proteins (CWPs) are coordinately induced. Pax family transcription factors are involved in a variety of developmental processes in animals. Nine Pax proteins have been found to play an important role in tissue and organ development in humans. To understand the progression from primitive to more complex eukaryotic cells, we tried to identify putative pax genes in the G. lamblia genome and found two genes, pax1 and pax2, with limited similarity. We found that Pax1 may transactivate the encystation-induced cwp genes and interact with AT-rich initiatior elements that are essential for promoter activity and transcription start site selection. In this study, we further characterized Pax2 and found that, like Pax1, Pax2 was present in Giardia nuclei and it may specifically bind to the AT-rich initiator elements of the encystation-induced cwp1-3 and myb2 genes. Interestingly, overexpression of Pax2 increased the cwp1-3 and myb2 gene expression and cyst formation. Deletion of the C-terminal paired domain or mutation of the basic amino acids of the paired domain resulted in a decrease of nuclear localization, DNA-binding activity, and transactivation activity of Pax2. These results are similar to those found in the previous Pax1 study. In addition, the profiles of gene expression in the Pax2 and Pax1 overexpressing cells significantly overlap in the same direction and ERK1 associated complexes may phosphorylate Pax2 and Pax1, suggesting that Pax2 and Pax1 may be downstream components of a MAPK/ERK1 signaling pathway. Our results reveal functional redundancy between Pax2 and Pax1 in up-regulation of the key encystation-induced genes. These results illustrate functional redundancy of a gene family can occur in order to increase maintenance of important gene function in the protozoan organism G. lamblia.

Dataset Information

Eyg and Ey Pax proteins act by distinct transcriptional mechanisms in Drosophila development.

Publications

Eyg and Ey Pax proteins act by distinct transcriptional mechanisms in Drosophila development.

Similar Datasets

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