The Mammalian Odz Gene Family: Homologs of a Drosophila Pair-Rule Gene with Expression Implying Distinct yet Overlapping Developmental Roles

Abstract

The Drosophila pair-rule gene odz (Tenm) has many patterning roles throughout development. We have identified four mammalian homologs of this gene, including one previously described as a mouse ER stress response gene, Doc4 (Wang et al., 1998). The Odz genes encode large polypeptides displaying the hallmarks of Drosophila Odz: a putative signal peptide; eight EGF-like repeats; and a putative transmembrane domain followed by a 1800-amino-acid stretch without homology to any proteins outside of this family. The mouse genes Odz3 and Doc4/Odz4 exhibit partially overlapping, but clearly distinct, embryonic expression patterns. The major embryonic sites of expression are in the nervous system, including the tectum, optic recess, optic stalk, and developing eye. Additional sites of expression include trachea and mesodermally derived tissues, such as mesentery, and forming limb and bone. Expression of the Odz2 gene is restricted to the nervous system. The expression patterns suggest that each of the genes has its own distinct developmental role. Comparisons of Drosophila and vertebrate Odz expression patterns suggest evolutionarily conserved functions.

Homozygous null mutation in ODZ3 causes microphthalmia in humans

“…21 Interestingly, both Odz3 and Odz4 are expressed in the vertebrate eye and Odz3 was particularly enriched in the optic stalk, which strongly suggests a conserved role for the vertebrate ortholog in eye development. 22 Surprisingly, however, Odz3 knockout mice have grossly normal eyes but significantly impaired binocular vision due to abnormality in mapping ipsilateral projections in the optic pathway. 23 However, it must be noted that only the transmembrane region of the Odz3 was deleted in the knockout construct, so the allele is likely hypomorphic.…”

The intracellular domain of teneurin-2 has a nuclear function and represses zic-1-mediated transcription

“…The predominant neuronal expression is conserved in the vertebrate homologues ten-m1, 2, 3 and 4 in the mouse (Oohashi et al, 1999;Ben-Zur et al, 2000), neurestin in the rat (Otaki and Firestein, 1999) and ten-m3 and ten-m4 in zebrafish (Mieda et al, 1999).…”

Caenorhabditis elegansTeneurin,ten-1, Is Required for Gonadal and Pharyngeal Basement Membrane Integrity and Acts Redundantly with Integrinina-1and Dystroglycandgn-1

“…Teneurins are phylogenetically conserved among metazoans and they were described in several species, including ten-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans (Drabikowski et al, 2005), ten-m/odz and ten-a in Drosophila (Baumgartner et al, 1994;Levine et al, 1994;Fascetti and Baumgartner, 2002;Rakovitsky et al, 2007), zebrafish (Mieda et al, 1999), and in chicken (Minet et al, 1999;Tucker et al, 2000;Tucker et al, 2001;Rubin et al, 2002) and mouse (Oohashi et al, 1999;Ben-Zur et al, 2000;Zhou et al, 2003). In vertebrates, the four teneurin paralogs were named teneurin-1 to -4, ten-m1 to -m4, or odz-1 to -4.…”