Dataset Information

Fates-shifted is an F-box protein that targets Bicoid for degradation and regulates developmental fate determination in Drosophila embryos.

ABSTRACT: Bicoid (Bcd) is a morphogenetic protein that instructs patterning along the anterior-posterior (A-P) axis in Drosophila melanogaster embryos. Despite extensive studies, what controls the formation of a normal concentration gradient of Bcd remains an unresolved and controversial question. Here, we show that Bcd protein degradation is mediated by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. We have identified an F-box protein, encoded by fates-shifted (fsd), that has an important role in Bcd protein degradation by targeting it for ubiquitylation. Embryos from females lacking fsd have an altered Bcd gradient profile, resulting in a shift of the fatemap along the A-P axis. Our study is an experimental demonstration that, contrary to an alternative hypothesis, Bcd protein degradation is required for normal gradient formation and developmental fate determination.

SUBMITTER: Liu J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3074934 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Fates-shifted is an F-box protein that targets Bicoid for degradation and regulates developmental fate determination in Drosophila embryos.

Liu Junbo J Ma Jun J

Nature cell biology 20101219 1

Bicoid (Bcd) is a morphogenetic protein that instructs patterning along the anterior-posterior (A-P) axis in Drosophila melanogaster embryos. Despite extensive studies, what controls the formation of a normal concentration gradient of Bcd remains an unresolved and controversial question. Here, we show that Bcd protein degradation is mediated by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. We have identified an F-box protein, encoded by fates-shifted (fsd), that has an important role in Bcd protein degradat ...[more]

PMID: 21170036

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Project description:BackgroundMorphogen molecules form concentration gradients to provide spatial information to cells in a developing embryo. Precisely how cells decode such information to form patterns with sharp boundaries remains an open question. For example, it remains controversial whether the Drosophila morphogenetic protein Bicoid (Bcd) plays a transient or sustained role in activating its target genes to establish sharp expression boundaries during development.Methodology/principal findingsIn this study, we describe a method to simultaneously detect Bcd and the nascent transcripts of its target genes in developing embryos. This method allows us to investigate the relationship between Bcd and the transcriptional status of individual copies of its target genes on distinct scales. We show that, on three scales analyzed concurrently--embryonic, nuclear and local, the actively-transcribing gene copies are associated with high Bcd concentrations. These results underscore the importance of Bcd as a sustained input for transcriptional decisions of individual copies of its target genes during development. We also show that the Bcd-dependent transcriptional decisions have a significantly higher noise than Bcd-dependent gene products, suggesting that, consistent with theoretical studies, time and/or space averaging reduces the noise of Bcd-activated transcriptional output. Finally, our analysis of an X-linked Bcd target gene reveals that Bcd-dependent transcription bursts at twice the frequency in males as in females, providing a mechanism for dosage compensation in early Drosophila embryos.Conclusion/significanceOur study represents a first experimental uncovering of the actions of Bcd in controlling the actual transcriptional events while its positional information is decoded during development. It establishes a sustained role of Bcd in transcriptional decisions of individual copies of its target genes to generate sharp expression boundaries. It also provides an experimental evaluation of the effect of time and/or space averaging on Bcd-dependent transcriptional output, and establishes a dosage compensation mechanism in early Drosophila embryos.

Dataset Information

Fates-shifted is an F-box protein that targets Bicoid for degradation and regulates developmental fate determination in Drosophila embryos.

Publications

Fates-shifted is an F-box protein that targets Bicoid for degradation and regulates developmental fate determination in Drosophila embryos.

Similar Datasets

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