Suzuki Y, Yandell M D, Roy P J, Krishna S, Savage-Dunn C, Ross R M, Padgett R W, Wood W B
Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0347, USA. wood@stripe. colorado.edu
Development. 1999 Jan;126(2):241-50. doi: 10.1242/dev.126.2.241.
We cloned the dbl-1 gene, a C. elegans homolog of Drosophila decapentaplegic and vertebrate BMP genes. Loss-of-function mutations in dbl-1 cause markedly reduced body size and defective male copulatory structures. Conversely, dbl-1 overexpression causes markedly increased body size and partly complementary male tail phenotypes, indicating that DBL-1 acts as a dose-dependent regulator of these processes. Evidence from genetic interactions indicates that these effects are mediated by a Smad signaling pathway, for which DBL-1 is a previously unidentified ligand. Our study of the dbl-1 expression pattern suggests a role for neuronal cells in global size regulation as well as male tail patterning.
我们克隆了dbl-1基因，它是果蝇的dpp基因和脊椎动物BMP基因在秀丽隐杆线虫中的同源基因。dbl-1功能缺失突变导致体型显著减小和雄性交配结构缺陷。相反，dbl-1的过表达导致体型显著增大以及部分互补的雄性尾部表型，这表明DBL-1作为这些过程的剂量依赖性调节因子发挥作用。遗传相互作用的证据表明，这些效应是由Smad信号通路介导的，而DBL-1是该信号通路中一个此前未被鉴定的配体。我们对dbl-1表达模式的研究表明，神经元细胞在整体大小调节以及雄性尾部模式形成中发挥作用。
