Reijnen M J, Hamer K M, den Blaauwen J L, Lambrechts C, Schoneveld I, van Driel R, Otte A P
E.C. Slater Institute, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Mech Dev. 1995 Sep;53(1):35-46. doi: 10.1016/0925-4773(95)00422-x.
The Polycomb group genes in Drosophila are involved in the stable and inheritable repression of gene expression. The Polycomb group proteins probably operate as multimeric complexes that bind to chromatin. To investigate molecular mechanisms of stable repression of gene activity in vertebrates we have begun to study Xenopus homologs of Polycomb group genes. We identified the Xenopus homologs of the Drosophila Polycomb gene and the bmi-1 gene. bmi-1 is a proto-oncogene which has sequence homology with the Polycomb group gene Posterior Sex Combs. We show that the XPolycomb and Xbmi-1 genes are expressed in overlapping patterns in the central nervous system of Xenopus embryos. However, XPolycomb is also expressed in the somites, whereas Xbmi-1 is not. We further demonstrate that the XPolycomb and Xbmi-1 proteins are able to interact with each other via conserved sequence motifs. These data suggest that also vertebrate Polycomb group proteins form multimeric complexes.
果蝇中的多梳蛋白家族基因参与基因表达的稳定且可遗传的抑制过程。多梳蛋白家族蛋白可能作为与染色质结合的多聚体复合物发挥作用。为了研究脊椎动物中基因活性稳定抑制的分子机制，我们已开始研究多梳蛋白家族基因的非洲爪蟾同源物。我们鉴定出了果蝇多梳基因和bmi - 1基因的非洲爪蟾同源物。bmi - 1是一种原癌基因，与多梳蛋白家族基因后位性梳具有序列同源性。我们发现XPolycomb和Xbmi - 1基因在非洲爪蟾胚胎的中枢神经系统中以重叠模式表达。然而，XPolycomb也在体节中表达，而Xbmi - 1则不然。我们进一步证明，XPolycomb和Xbmi - 1蛋白能够通过保守的序列基序相互作用。这些数据表明脊椎动物的多梳蛋白家族蛋白也会形成多聚体复合物。
