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The products of the Drosophila gap genes hunchback and Krüppel bind to the hunchback promoters

Nature volume 341, pages 335–337 (1989)Cite this article

Abstract

THE first zygotic genes to be expressed during early Drosophila development are the gap genes1–3. Their role is to read and interpret coarse positional information deposited in the egg by the mother4,–6 and to refine it by cross-regulatory interactions7 and by controlling a class of pair-rule genes8,9. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms10 by which the three cloned gap genes3,11,12 carry out their genetically defined functions. Here we report that the Kruppel (Kr) gene product (Kr) binds to the sequence AAGGGGTTAA, whereas the hunchback (hb) gene product (Hb) recognizes the consensus ACNCAAAAAANTA. We have identified binding sites for these proteins upstream of the two hb promoters, which we suggest could mediate the repression of hbby Kr7 and perhaps allow hb to influence its own expression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, 10021, USA

    Jessica Treisman & Claude Desplan

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  1. Jessica Treisman
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  2. Claude Desplan
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Treisman, J., Desplan, C. The products of the Drosophila gap genes hunchback and Krüppel bind to the hunchback promoters. Nature 341, 335–337 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/341335a0

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