Ambros V
Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover 03755, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2000 Aug;10(4):428-33. doi: 10.1016/s0959-437x(00)00108-8.
Studies of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have identified genetic and molecular mechanisms controlling temporal patterns of developmental events. Mutations in genes of the C. elegans heterochronic pathway cause altered temporal patterns of larval development, in which cells at certain larval stages execute cell division patterns or differentiation programs normally specific for other stages. The products of the heterochronic genes include transcriptional and translational regulators and two different cases of novel small translational regulatory RNAs. Other genes of the pathway encode evolutionarily conserved proteins, including a homolog of the Drosophila Period circadian timing regulator, and a member of the nuclear receptor family of proteins. These regulators interact with each other to elaborate stage-specific regulatory switches and act through downstream effectors to control the timing of cell-type-specific developmental events.
对线虫秀丽隐杆线虫的研究已经确定了控制发育事件时间模式的遗传和分子机制。秀丽隐杆线虫异时性通路基因的突变会导致幼虫发育的时间模式改变，其中某些幼虫阶段的细胞执行通常特定于其他阶段的细胞分裂模式或分化程序。异时性基因的产物包括转录和翻译调节因子以及两种不同类型的新型小翻译调节RNA。该通路的其他基因编码进化上保守的蛋白质，包括果蝇周期昼夜节律调节因子的同源物以及核受体蛋白家族的一员。这些调节因子相互作用以构建阶段特异性调节开关，并通过下游效应器发挥作用，以控制细胞类型特异性发育事件的时间。
