Li Michelle A, Alls Jeffrey D, Avancini Rita M, Koo Karen, Godt Dorothea
Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5, Canada.
Nat Cell Biol. 2003 Nov;5(11):994-1000. doi: 10.1038/ncb1058. Epub 2003 Oct 26.
Interactions between somatic and germline cells are critical for the normal development of egg and sperm. Here we show that the gene traffic jam (tj) produces a soma-specific factor that controls gonad morphogenesis and is required for female and male fertility. tj encodes the only large Maf factor in Drosophila melanogaster, an orthologue of the atypical basic Leu zipper transcription factors c-Maf and MafB/Kreisler in vertebrates. Expression of tj occurs in somatic gonadal cells that are in direct contact with germline cells throughout development. In tj mutant gonads, somatic cells fail to inter-mingle and properly envelop germline cells, causing an early block in germ cell differentiation. In addition, tj mutant somatic cells show an increase in the level of expression for several adhesion molecules. We propose that tj is a critical modulator of the adhesive properties of somatic cells, facilitating germline-soma interactions that are essential for germ cell differentiation.
体细胞与生殖细胞之间的相互作用对于卵子和精子的正常发育至关重要。在此我们表明，基因traffic jam（tj）产生一种体细胞特异性因子，该因子控制性腺形态发生，并且是雌性和雄性生育力所必需的。tj编码黑腹果蝇中唯一的大Maf因子，是脊椎动物中非典型碱性亮氨酸拉链转录因子c-Maf和MafB/Kreisler的直系同源物。在整个发育过程中，tj的表达发生在与生殖细胞直接接触的体细胞性腺细胞中。在tj突变性腺中，体细胞无法相互混合并正确包裹生殖细胞，导致生殖细胞分化早期受阻。此外，tj突变体细胞显示几种粘附分子的表达水平增加。我们提出，tj是体细胞粘附特性的关键调节因子，促进了对生殖细胞分化至关重要的生殖细胞与体细胞之间的相互作用。
