Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia (IBV-CSIC), Jaime Roig, 11, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Dev Biol. 2011 May 15;353(2):396-410. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2011.02.005. Epub 2011 Feb 12.
The expression of the Hox gene Distal-less (Dll) directs the development of appendages in a wide variety of animals. In Drosophila, its expression is subjected to a complex developmental control. In the present work we have studied a 17kb genomic region in the Dll locus which lies downstream of the coding sequence and found control elements of primary functional importance for the expression of Dll in the leg and in other tissues. Of particular interest is a control element, which we have called LP, which drives expression of Dll in the leg primordium from early embryonic development, and whose deletion causes severe truncation and malformation of the adult leg. This is the first Dll enhancer for which, in addition to the ability to drive expression of a reporter, a role can be demonstrated in the expression of the endogenous Dll gene and in the development of the leg. In addition, our results suggest that some enhancers, contrary to the widely accepted notion, may require a specific 5' or 3' position with respect to the transcribed region.
Hox 基因 Distal-less(Dll)的表达指导着各种动物附肢的发育。在果蝇中,其表达受到复杂的发育调控。在本工作中,我们研究了 Dll 基因座下游的一个 17kb 基因组区域,该区域位于编码序列的下游,并发现了对 Dll 在腿和其他组织中表达具有主要功能重要性的调控元件。特别有趣的是一个调控元件,我们称之为 LP,它从早期胚胎发育开始驱动 Dll 在腿原基中的表达,其缺失会导致成年腿的严重缩短和畸形。这是第一个 Dll 增强子,除了能够驱动报告基因的表达外,还可以证明其在内源性 Dll 基因的表达和腿的发育中具有作用。此外,我们的结果表明,一些增强子可能需要相对于转录区域具有特定的 5'或 3'位置,这与广泛接受的观点相反。