Morisato D, Anderson K V
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
Cell. 1994 Feb 25;76(4):677-88. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90507-x.
spätzle is a maternal effect gene required in the signal transduction pathway that establishes the dorsal-ventral pattern of the Drosophila embryo. spätzle acts immediately upstream of the membrane protein Toll in the genetic pathway, suggesting that spätzle could encode the ventrally localized ligand that activates the receptor activity of Toll. The spätzle gene encodes a novel secreted protein that appears to require activation by a proteolytic processing reaction, which is controlled by the genes that act upstream of spätzle in the genetic pathway. We propose that proteolytic processing of the spätzle protein is confined to the ventral side of the embryo and that the localization of processed spätzle determines where the receptor, Toll, is active.
斯佩茨尔（spätzle）是果蝇胚胎背腹模式建立信号转导途径中所需的母体效应基因。在遗传途径中，斯佩茨尔在膜蛋白Toll的上游起作用，这表明斯佩茨尔可能编码激活Toll受体活性的腹侧定位配体。斯佩茨尔基因编码一种新型分泌蛋白，该蛋白似乎需要通过蛋白水解加工反应来激活，而这种反应受遗传途径中位于斯佩茨尔上游的基因控制。我们提出，斯佩茨尔蛋白的蛋白水解加工局限于胚胎的腹侧，加工后的斯佩茨尔的定位决定了受体Toll的活性位置。
