Open AccessDevelopmentally regulated Drosophila gene family encoding the fork head domain.
Author(s) -
Udo Häcker,
Ueli Grossniklaus,
Walter Gehring,
Herbert Jäckle
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.89.18.8754
Subject(s) - biology , gene , genetics , homeotic gene , tbx1 , pair rule gene , coding region , transcription factor , locus (genetics) , gene family , dna binding domain , transcription (linguistics) , gene product , conserved sequence , regulation of gene expression , peptide sequence , promoter , gene expression , regulator gene , linguistics , philosophy
We have isolated seven Drosophila genes by means of low-stringency hybridization to a DNA probe containing the coding sequence for the protein domain shared by the rodent hepatocyte-enriched nuclear transcription factor HNF3A (alpha) and the product of the Drosophila region-specific homeotic gene fork head (fkh). The previously unreported genes encode a 110-amino acid conserved sequence, which we call the fork head (fkh) domain. Two of these fkh-domain-encoding genes ("FD genes") map to the sloppy paired locus (slp), which exerts segmentation gene function. The expression patterns of the other FD genes suggest that their protein products are likely to be involved in gut formation, mesoderm specification, and some specific aspects of neural development. The FD gene products presumably represent a family of transcription factors that, like the previously identified DNA-binding proteins, contribute to early developmental decisions in cell fates during embryogenesis.