Schweitzer R, Shilo B Z
Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Trends Genet. 1997 May;13(5):191-6. doi: 10.1016/s0168-9525(97)01091-3.
In the Drosophila genome there is a single member of the EGF receptor tyrosine kinase family. This receptor fulfills multiple roles during development, as reflected by the many designations given to mutant alleles in the locus (Egfr, DER, faint little ball, torpedo and Ellipse). The full scope of EGFR functions became apparent only in recent years: receptor activation was shown to have an instructive role in successive cell fate determination events during oogenesis, embryogenesis, and the proliferation and differentiation of imaginal discs. To ensure the fidelity of these processes, the precise place and time of receptor activation are tightly regulated by the localized presentation of activating ligands, in conjunction with a negative-feedback loop generated by an inhibitory secreted factor. The cellular mechanisms that translate EGFR activation to discrete cell fates are now the focus of intense studies.
在果蝇基因组中，表皮生长因子受体酪氨酸激酶家族仅有一个成员。该受体在发育过程中发挥多种作用，这从该基因座中突变等位基因的众多命名（Egfr、DER、微小球、鱼雷和椭圆）中可见一斑。表皮生长因子受体功能的全貌直到最近几年才变得清晰：受体激活在卵子发生、胚胎发生以及成虫盘的增殖和分化过程中的连续细胞命运决定事件中具有指导作用。为确保这些过程的准确性，受体激活的精确位置和时间通过激活配体的局部呈现以及由抑制性分泌因子产生的负反馈回路进行严格调控。将表皮生长因子受体激活转化为离散细胞命运的细胞机制目前是深入研究的焦点。
