Abstract
In wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans, six cells develop as receptors for gentle touch. In egl-44 and egl-46 mutants, two other neurons, the FLP cells, express touch receptor-like features, egl-44 and egl-46 also affect the differentiation of other neurons including the HSN neurons, two cells needed for egg laying. egl-44 encodes a member of the transcription enhancer factor family. The product of the egl-46 gene, two Drosophila proteins, and two proteins in human and mice define a new family of zinc finger proteins. Both egl-44 and egl-46 are expressed in FLP and HSN neurons (and other cells); expression of egl-46 is dependent on egl-44 in the FLP cells but not in the HSN cells. Wild-type touch cells express egl-46 but not egl-44. Moreover, ectopic expression of egl-44 in the touch cells prevents touch cell differentiation in an egl-46-dependent manner. The sequences of these genes and their nuclear location as seen with GFP fusions indicate that they repress transcription of touch cell characteristics in the FLP cells.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 789-802 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Genes and Development |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 15 2001 |
Keywords
- Cell differentiation
- Combinatorial control
- TEF
- Transcriptional control
- Zinc finger proteins
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Genetics
- Developmental Biology