Vervoort M
Evolution et Développement des Protostomien,Centre de Génétique Moléculaire-UMR 2067 CNRS; 1, avenue de la terrasse, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.
Bioessays. 2000 May;22(5):460-8. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1521-1878(200005)22:5<460::AID-BIES8>3.0.CO;2-G.
In Drosophila, Hedgehog (Hh) is a key regulator of limb development and activates decapentaplegic (dpp), a gene encoding a TGFbeta-related factor that controls growth and patterning of the limbs. During wing development, Hh also has morphogen-like Dpp-independent functions, controlling the morphogenesis of the central part of the wing through the activation of the evolutionarily conserved transcription factors encoded by the iroquois and collier genes. The ways in which Hh forms an activity gradient to lay the basis of patterning of the adult wing are described here. As the signal transduction pathway of Hh is strongly conserved during evolution and human Hh may be implicated in congenital diseases and cancers, these observations provide important advances which may help in understanding the function of Hh proteins in normal and pathological development and tumourigenesis in humans.
在果蝇中，刺猬蛋白（Hh）是肢体发育的关键调节因子，可激活果蝇的五体不全基因（dpp），该基因编码一种与转化生长因子β（TGFβ）相关的因子，控制肢体的生长和模式形成。在翅膀发育过程中，Hh还具有类似形态发生素的、不依赖Dpp的功能，通过激活由印第安人基因和科利尔基因编码的进化上保守的转录因子，控制翅膀中央部分的形态发生。本文描述了Hh形成活性梯度以奠定成虫翅膀模式形成基础的方式。由于Hh的信号转导途径在进化过程中高度保守，且人类Hh可能与先天性疾病和癌症有关，这些观察结果提供了重要进展，可能有助于理解Hh蛋白在人类正常和病理发育以及肿瘤发生中的功能。
