Isolation of a homoeo box-containing gene from the engrailed region of Drosophila and the spatial distribution of its transcripts

Abstract

The engrailed locus of Drosophila melanogaster has the characteristics of both a homoeotic gene and a segmentation gene: like a homoeotic gene, it specifies the development of specific compartments of the Drosophila embryo (the posterior compartments of each segment), and, like mutations of segmentation genes, lethal alleles of engrailed affect also the pattern of segmentation of the embryo. Here we report that like many of the homoeotic genes of the bithorax and Antennapedia complexes, engrailed has a 'homoeo box' sequence: also, like the segmentation gene fushi tarazu, the engrailed gene displays a periodic pattern of expression in Drosophila embryos.

The sequence specificity of homeodomain-DNA interaction

“…All 19 HD sequences compiled here are conserved at positions 4, 7, and 8, while the majority of the presently identified HD sequences differ only at position 2. The sources of the sequence are as follows: Antp, Ubx, and ftz (McGinnis et al, 1984b;Scott and Weiner, 1984); Scr (Kuroiwa et al, 1985); Dfd and AbdB (Regulski et al, 1985); zen ; zen2 (C. Rushlow and M. Levine, personal communication); cad (Mlodzik et al, 1985(Mlodzik et al, , 1987; en (Poole et al, 1985;Fjose et al, 1985); inv (Coleman et al, 1987); 99B (B. Jacq, A. Fjose, and W. Gehring, personal communication); F 90-2, homeodomain of the lab gene and personal communication from A. Mahowald); rough (B. Kalionis and R. Saint, personal communication); prd, gsb1, and gsb2 ; eve ; and bcd .…”

The homeobox gene Msx in development and transdifferentiation of jellyfish striated muscle

“…The jellyfish Msx gene is yet another exponent corroborating the common origin hypothesis as gene expression is most prominent in the entocodon and derived striated muscle of the developing medusa and in the quiescent differentiated striated muscle of the adult medusa. Muscle specificity has first been described in Drosophila (Fjose et al, 1985) where Msx is ing by transdifferentiation from the striated muscle (Fig. 4D).…”

“…Msx genes are found in animals ranging from sponge to mammal (Fjose et al, 1985;Robert et al, 1989;Holland, 1991;Schummer et al, 1992;Seimiya et al, 1994;Aniello, 1999;Gauchat et al, 2000). They have been named for their muscle specific expression and are characterized by a distinct and highly conserved homeo domain Int.…”

A Minimal WLE2 Element is Not Sufficient to Direct Apical Localization in the Absence of RNAs Containing the Full Length Wingless 3'UTR

“…This potential confounding effect was avoided by expressing these transgenes in engrailed (en) expressing cells which are adjacent to those endogenously expressing wg. Like wg, en is also expressed in a series of 14 stripes along the anterior-posterior axis of the Drosophila embryo, [67][68][69] however, wg is expressed in the cells at the posterior of each parasegment while en is expressed in the anterior. These cells do have the necessary components to localize wg mRNA as a lacZ ORF sequence construct fused to full length wg 3'UTR expressed in these cells is concentrated apically (Fig.…”