English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Zic-r.a, a maternal transcription factor, specifies posterior fate in ascidian embryos. However, its direct target, Tbx6-r.b, does not contain typical Zic-r.a-binding sites in its regulatory region. Using an in vitro selection assay, we found that Zic-r.a binds to sites dissimilar to the canonical motif, by which it activates Tbx6-r.b in a sub-lineage of muscle cells. These sites with non-canonical motifs have weak affinity for Zic-r.a; therefore, it activates Tbx6-r.b only in cells expressing Zic-r.a abundantly. Meanwhile, we found that Zic-r.a expressed zygotically in late embryos activates neural genes through canonical sites. Because different zinc-finger domains of Zic-r.a are important for driving reporters with canonical and non-canonical sites, it is likely that the non-canonical motif is not a divergent version of the canonical motif. In other words, our data indicate that the non-canonical motif represents a motif distinct from the canonical motif. Thus, Zic-r.a recognizes two distinct motifs to activate two sets of genes at two timepoints in development. This article has an associated ‘The people behind the papers’ interview.

Two distinct motifs for Zic-r.a drive specific gene expression in two cell lineages