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Transcriptional activities of the Pax6 gene eyeless regulate tissue specificity of ectopic eye formation in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Pax genes encode DNA binding proteins that play pivotal roles in the determination of complex tissues. Members of one subclass, Pax6, function as selector genes and play key roles in the retinal development of all seeing animals. Mutations within the Pax6 homologs including fly eyeless, mouse Small eye and human Pax6 lead to severe retinal defects in their respective systems. In Drosophila eyeless and twin of eyeless, play non-redundant roles in the developing retina. One particularly interesting characteristic of these genes is that, although expression of either gene can induce ectopic eye formation in non-retinal tissues, there are differences in the location and frequencies at which the eyes develop. eyeless induces much larger ectopic eyes, at higher frequencies, and in a broader range of tissues than twin of eyeless. In this report we describe a series of experiments conducted in both yeast and flies that has identified protein modules that are responsible for the differences in tissue transformation. These domains appear to contain transcriptional activator and repressor activity of distinct strengths. We propose a model in which the selective presence of these activities and their relative strengths accounts, in part, for the disparity to which ectopic eyes are induced in response to the forced expression of eyeless and twin of eyeless. The identification of both transcriptional activator and repressor activity within the Pax6 protein furthers our understanding of how this gene family regulates tissue determination.

SUBMITTER: Weasner BM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2753678 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Transcriptional activities of the Pax6 gene eyeless regulate tissue specificity of ectopic eye formation in Drosophila.

Weasner Bonnie M BM Weasner Brandon B Deyoung Stephanie M SM Michaels Scott D SD Kumar Justin P JP

Developmental biology 20090504 2

Pax genes encode DNA binding proteins that play pivotal roles in the determination of complex tissues. Members of one subclass, Pax6, function as selector genes and play key roles in the retinal development of all seeing animals. Mutations within the Pax6 homologs including fly eyeless, mouse Small eye and human Pax6 lead to severe retinal defects in their respective systems. In Drosophila eyeless and twin of eyeless, play non-redundant roles in the developing retina. One particularly interestin ...[more]

PMID: 19406113

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Project description:The discovery of direct downstream targets of transcription factors (TFs) is necessary for understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying complex, highly regulated processes such as development. In this report, we have used a combinatorial strategy to conduct a genome-wide search for novel direct targets of Eyeless (Ey), a key transcription factor controlling early eye development in Drosophila. Like many other TFs, little is known for Ey direct downstream targets. To date, only one gene, sine oculis (so), has been identified as Ey direct targets in Drosophila. Therefore, it is crucial to identify additional targets in order to gain a better understanding of ey function. To overcome the lack of high quality consensus binding site sequences, phylogenetic shadowing of Ey binding sites in so was used to construct a position weight matrix (PWM) of the Ey protein. This PWM was then used for in silico prediction of potential binding sites in the Drosophila melanogaster genome. To reduce the false positive rate, conservation of these potential binding sites was assessed by comparing the genomic sequences from seven Drosophila species. In parallel, microarray analysis of wild-type versus ectopic ey-expressing tissue, followed by microarray-based epistasis experiments in an atonal (ato) mutant background, identified 188 genes induced by ey. Intersection of in silico predicted conserved Ey binding sites with the candidate gene list produced through expression profiling yields a list of 20 putative ey-induced, eye-enriched, ato-independent, direct targets of Ey, including so. The accuracy of this list of genes was confirmed using both in vitro and in vivo methods. Initial analysis reveals three genes, eyes absent, shifted, and Optix, as novel direct targets of Ey. These results suggest that the integrated strategy of computational biology, genomics, and genetics is a powerful approach that can be applied to systematically identify direct downstream targets for any transcription factor genome-wide.

Dataset Information

Transcriptional activities of the Pax6 gene eyeless regulate tissue specificity of ectopic eye formation in Drosophila.

Publications

Transcriptional activities of the Pax6 gene eyeless regulate tissue specificity of ectopic eye formation in Drosophila.

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