Dormand E L, Brand A H
Wellcome/CRC Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Development. 1998 May;125(9):1659-67. doi: 10.1242/dev.125.9.1659.
The segmentation gene, runt, is expressed by a subset of the 30 neuroblasts that give rise to each neuromere of the Drosophila embryo. Runt activity in the neuroblasts is necessary for expression of even-skipped in the EL neurons. runt is therefore a good candidate for a gene specifying neuroblast identities. We have ectopically expressed Runt in restricted subsets of neuroblasts and show that Runt is sufficient to activate even-skipped expression in the progeny of specific neuroblasts. Using the marker Tau-green fluorescent protein to highlight the axons, we have found that the extra Even-skipped-expressing neurons project axons along the same pathway as the EL neurons. We find that Runt is expressed in neuroblast 3-3, supporting an autonomous role for runt during neuroblast specification.
分节基因runt由30个神经母细胞中的一部分表达，这些神经母细胞产生果蝇胚胎的每个神经节。神经母细胞中的Runt活性对于EL神经元中even-skipped的表达是必需的。因此，runt是一个指定神经母细胞身份的基因的良好候选者。我们在有限的神经母细胞亚群中异位表达了Runt，并表明Runt足以激活特定神经母细胞后代中even-skipped的表达。使用标记物Tau-绿色荧光蛋白来突出轴突，我们发现额外表达Even-skipped的神经元沿着与EL神经元相同的途径投射轴突。我们发现Runt在神经母细胞3-3中表达，支持runt在神经母细胞特化过程中的自主作用。
