Martinez S, Wassef M, Alvarado-Mallart R M
INSERM U-106, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
Neuron. 1991 Jun;6(6):971-81. doi: 10.1016/0896-6273(91)90237-t.
The homeobox gene en, homologous to the gene en-grailed of Drosophila, is expressed in the metencephalic-mesencephalic segment of the vertebrate neural tube. Using quail-chick chimeras, an antibody against en proteins, and cytoarchitectonic techniques, we demonstrate that metencephalon transplanted to prosencephalon, at E2, maintains a high level of en proteins and its presumptive cerebellar fate. The ectopic metencephalon induces in the contiguous host prosencephalon the expression of en and, subsequently, a mesencephalic phenotype. These related genetic and phenotypic expressions indicate that the transcriptional regulatory en gene is involved in cerebellar and mesencephalic cyto-differentiation. The expression of en can also be induced in chick prosencephalon by a mammalian metencephalic graft, indicating that the factors regulating the transcription of en are phylogenetically well conserved.
同源异型框基因en与果蝇的en-grailed基因同源，在脊椎动物神经管的后脑-中脑节段表达。利用鹌鹑-鸡嵌合体、抗en蛋白抗体和细胞构筑技术，我们证明，在胚胎第2天移植到前脑的后脑维持着高水平的en蛋白及其假定的小脑命运。异位后脑在前脑相邻的宿主组织中诱导en的表达，随后诱导出中脑表型。这些相关的基因和表型表达表明，转录调节性en基因参与了小脑和中脑的细胞分化。哺乳动物后脑移植也能在鸡前脑中诱导en的表达，这表明调节en转录的因子在系统发育上具有高度保守性。
