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sem-4 promotes vulval cell-fate determin ... hrough regulation of lin-39 Hox
sem-4 promotes vulval cell-fate determination in Caenorhabditis elegans through regulation of lin-39 Hox.
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Vulval cell-fate determination in Caenorhabditis elegans requires the action of numerous gene products, including components of the Ras/Raf/MAPK signaling cascade and the hox gene lin-39. sem-4 encodes a zinc finger protein with previously characterized roles in fate specification of sex myoblasts, coelomocytes, and multiple neuronal lineages in C. elegans (M. Basson and R. Horvitz, 1996, Genes Dev. 10, 1953-1965). By characterizing three new alleles of sem-4 that we identified in a screen for vulval-defective mutants, we determined that loss of sem-4 activity results in abnormal specification of the secondary vulval cell lineages. We analyzed sem-4 interactions with other genes involved in vulval differentiation and determined that sem-4 does not function directly in the Ras-mediated signal transduction pathway but acts in close association with and upstream of lin-39 to promote vulval cell fate. We demonstrate that sem-4 regulates lin-39 expression and propose that sem-4 is a regulator of lin-39 in the vulval cell-fate determination pathway that may act to link lin-39 to incoming signals.
Grant K, Hanna-Rose W, Han M
Developmental biology
2000-08-15 00:00
224
2
496-506
Alleles,Animals,Base Sequence,Caenorhabditis elegans,Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins,Cell Lineage,DNA Primers,DNA-Binding Proteins,Female,Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental,Helminth Proteins,Homeodomain Proteins,Mutation,Vulva,Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins,DNA Primers,DNA-Binding Proteins,Helminth Proteins,Homeodomain Proteins,lin-39 protein, C elegans,sem-4 protein, C elegans
Department of Molecular, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
Dev. Biol.
NIGMS GM47869
0012-1606
10.1006/dbio.2000.9774
S0012-1606(00)99774-4
536
True
10926783
