Barrionuevo María-Guadalupe, Aybar Manuel J, Tríbulo Celeste
Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO, CONICET-UNT), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina.
Int J Dev Biol. 2014;58(5):369-77. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.130353ct.
The vestigial gene (vg) was first characterized in Drosophila and several homologues were identified in vertebrates and called vestigial like 1-4 (vgll1-4). Vgll proteins interact with the transcription factors TEF-1 and MEF-2 through a conserved region called TONDU (TDU). Vgll4s are characterized by two tandem TDU domains which differentiate them from other members of the vestigial family. In Xenopus two genes were identified as vgll4. Our bioinformatic analysis demonstrated that these two genes are paralogues and must be named differently. We designated them as vgll4 and vgll4l. In situ hybridization analysis revealed that the expression of these two genes is rather different. At gastrula stage, both were expressed in the animal pole. However, at neurula stage, vgll4 was mainly expressed in the neural plate and neural folds, while vgll4l prevailed in the neural folds and epidermis. From the advanced neurula stage onward, expression of both genes was strongly enhanced in neural tissues, anterior neural plate, migrating neural crest, optic and otic vesicles. Nevertheless, there were some differences: vgll4 presented somite expression and vgll4l was localized at the skin and notochord. Our results demonstrate that Xenopus has two orthologues of the vgll4 gene, vgll4 and vgll4l with differential expression in Xenopus embryos and they may well have different roles during development.
残迹基因（vg）最初是在果蝇中得到表征的，在脊椎动物中鉴定出了几个同源物，并将其称为类残迹1 - 4（vgll1 - 4）。Vgll蛋白通过一个名为TONDU（TDU）的保守区域与转录因子TEF - 1和MEF - 2相互作用。Vgll4的特征是有两个串联的TDU结构域，这使其与残迹家族的其他成员有所不同。在非洲爪蟾中，有两个基因被鉴定为vgll4。我们的生物信息学分析表明，这两个基因是旁系同源物，必须给予不同的命名。我们将它们命名为vgll4和vgll4l。原位杂交分析显示，这两个基因的表达差异很大。在原肠胚阶段，两者都在动物极表达。然而，在神经胚阶段，vgll4主要在神经板和神经褶中表达，而vgll4l在神经褶和表皮中占优势。从晚期神经胚阶段开始，两个基因在神经组织、前神经板、迁移的神经嵴、视泡和听泡中的表达都强烈增强。然而，仍存在一些差异：vgll4在体节中有表达，而vgll4l定位于皮肤和脊索。我们的结果表明，非洲爪蟾有vgll4基因的两个直系同源物，vgll4和vgll4l，它们在非洲爪蟾胚胎中表达不同，并且在发育过程中可能具有不同的作用。
