Activation of a protease cascade involved in patterning the
            <i>Drosophila</i>
            embryo

LeMosy, Ellen K.; Tan, Yue-Qing; Hashimoto, Carl

doi:10.1073/pnas.081026598

Cited by 87 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…1F) (Smith and DeLotto 1994;Sen et al 1998;LeMosy et al 2001;Peri et al 2002). The protease reactions occur in the perivitelline space and culminate in the processing of Spätzle (Spz), the protein ligand for Toll (Fig.…”

Section: Initiation Of the Dorsal Nuclear Gradientmentioning

confidence: 99%

Graded Dorsal and Differential Gene Regulation in the Drosophila Embryo

Reeves¹,

Stathopoulos²

2009

Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology

109

110

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A gradient of Dorsal activity patterns the dorsoventral (DV) axis of the early Drosophila melanogaster embryo by controlling the expression of genes that delineate presumptive mesoderm, neuroectoderm, and dorsal ectoderm. The availability of the Drosophila melanogaster genome sequence has accelerated the study of embryonic DV patterning, enabling the use of systems-level approaches. As a result, our understanding of Dorsal-dependent gene regulation has expanded to encompass a collection of more than 50 genes and 30 cis-regulatory sequences. This information, which has been integrated into a spatiotemporal atlas of gene regulatory interactions, comprises one of the best-understood networks controlling any developmental process to date. In this article, we focus on how Dorsal controls differential gene expression and how recent studies have expanded our understanding of Drosophila embryonic development from the cis-regulatory level to that controlling morphogenesis of the embryo.

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Section: Initiation Of the Dorsal Nuclear Gradientmentioning

confidence: 99%

Graded Dorsal and Differential Gene Regulation in the Drosophila Embryo

Reeves¹,

Stathopoulos²

2009

Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology

109

110

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“…Easter is initially synthesized as an inactive zymogen containing an N-terminal pro-domain and a C-terminal catalytic domain. Proteolytic cleavage at the activation site between these two domains by Snake presumably generates active Easter in vivo (Chasan et al, 1992;Dissing et al, 2001;LeMosy et al, 2001). Yet, in wild-type embryo extracts, active Easter is found in a high Mr complex called Ea-X, which is hypothesized to contain a protease inhibitor of the serpin family (Misra et al, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation of Easter activity is required for shaping the Dorsal gradient in theDrosophilaembryo

Chang

Morisato

2002

Development

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Dorsoventral polarity of the Drosophila embryo requires maternal spätzle-Toll signaling to establish a nuclear gradient of Dorsal protein. The shape of this gradient is altered in embryos produced by females carrying dominant alleles of easter (ea D ). The easter gene encodes a serine protease that generates processed Spätzle, which is proposed to act as the Toll ligand. By examining the expression domains of the zygotic genes zen, sog, rho and twist, which are targets of nuclear Dorsal, we show that the slope of the Dorsal gradient is progressively flattened in stronger ea D alleles. In the wild-type embryo, activated Easter is found in a high Mr complex called Ea-X, which is hypothesized to contain a protease inhibitor. In ea D embryo extracts, we detect an Easter form corresponding to the free catalytic domain, which is never observed in wild type. These mutant ea D proteins retain protease activity, as determined by the production of processed Spätzle both in the embryo and in cultured Drosophila cells. These experiments suggest that the ea D mutations interfere with inactivation of catalytic Easter, and imply that this negative regulation is essential for generating the wild-type shape of the Dorsal gradient.

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“…16) Recently, a protease cascade has been described as a component of a signal transduction pathway in the embryonic pattern formation of the fruit fly, Drosophila. [17][18][19][20][21] Although the developmental program of insects is completely different from that of plants, it is possible that proteinases may contribute to plant embryogenesis. Indeed, a few proteinases have been reported to play roles in cell differentiation during zygotic embryo formation.…”

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confidence: 99%