Martini Sharyl R, Davis Ronald L
Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
J Neurobiol. 2005 Aug;64(2):133-44. doi: 10.1002/neu.20130.
The dachshund gene encodes a transcription factor required for the proper development of Drosophila eyes, legs, and mushroom bodies. The mushroom bodies of dachshund mutants exhibit a marked reduction in the size of the vertical lobes and disorganization of the horizontal lobes. In mosaic animals, mutant axons fail to contribute significantly to the mushroom body alpha lobe. Here we show that this defect is due to the misrouting of alphabeta axons to the region normally occupied by alpha'beta' axons. This defect is pronounced for clones generated in larval stages but not clones generated after pupariation, indicating that dachshund function is particularly important around the time of puparium formation. In addition, mushroom body axons exhibit excessive branching in dachshund mutant clones. Thus, dachshund is required in mushroom body neurons for proper axon guidance and branching.
腊肠犬基因编码一种转录因子，它是果蝇眼睛、腿部和蕈形体正常发育所必需的。腊肠犬突变体的蕈形体表现出垂直叶大小显著减小以及水平叶紊乱。在嵌合体动物中，突变轴突对蕈形体α叶的贡献不大。我们在此表明，这种缺陷是由于αβ轴突错误地导向了通常由α'β'轴突占据的区域。这种缺陷在幼虫阶段产生的克隆中很明显，但在化蛹后产生的克隆中则不明显，这表明腊肠犬基因的功能在化蛹形成时尤为重要。此外，在腊肠犬突变体克隆中，蕈形体轴突表现出过度分支。因此，在蕈形体神经元中，腊肠犬基因对于轴突的正确导向和分支是必需的。
