Cvekl A, Piatigorsky J
Laboratory of Molecular and Developmental Biology, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-2730, USA.
Bioessays. 1996 Aug;18(8):621-30. doi: 10.1002/bies.950180805.
The vertebrate eye lens has been used extensively as a model for developmental processes such as determination, embryonic induction, cellular differentiation, transdifferentiation and regeneration, with the crystallin genes being a prime example of developmentally controlled, tissue-preferred gene expression. Recent studies have shown that Pax-6, a transcription factor containing both a paired domain and homeodomain, is a key protein regulating lens determination and crystallin gene expression in the lens. The use of Pax-6 for expression of different crystallin genes provides a new link at the developmental and transcriptional level among the diverse crystallins and may lead to new insights into their evolutionary recruitment as refractive proteins.
脊椎动物的眼晶状体已被广泛用作研究发育过程的模型，如细胞决定、胚胎诱导、细胞分化、转分化和再生，其中晶状体蛋白基因是发育调控、组织特异性基因表达的一个主要例子。最近的研究表明，Pax-6，一种同时含有配对结构域和同源结构域的转录因子，是调节晶状体决定和晶状体中晶状体蛋白基因表达的关键蛋白。利用Pax-6来表达不同的晶状体蛋白基因，在发育和转录水平上为多种晶状体蛋白之间提供了新的联系，并可能为它们作为屈光蛋白的进化招募带来新的见解。
