Publication Date:
1988-01-08
Description:
Segmentation genes control cell identities during early pattern formation in Drosophila. One of these genes, fushi tarazu (ftz), is now shown also to control cell fate during neurogenesis. Early in development, ftz is expressed in a striped pattern at the blastoderm stage. Later, it is transiently expressed in a specific subset of neuronal precursor cells, neurons (such as aCC, pCC, RP1, and RP2), and glia in the developing central nervous system (CNS). The function of ftz in the CNS was determined by creating ftz mutant embryos that express ftz in the blastoderm stripes but not in the CNS. In the absence of ftz CNS expression, some neurons appear normal (for example, the aCC, pCC, and RP1), whereas the RP2 neuron extends its growth cone along an abnormal pathway, mimicking its sibling (RP1), suggesting a transformation in neuronal identity.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Doe, C Q -- Hiromi, Y -- Gehring, W J -- Goodman, C S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1988 Jan 8;239(4836):170-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, CA 94305.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2892267" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Cell Differentiation
;
Drosophila melanogaster/*embryology/genetics
;
Gene Expression Regulation
;
Genes, Homeobox
;
Morphogenesis
;
Nervous System/*embryology
;
Neuroglia/cytology/physiology
;
Neurons/cytology/physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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