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Novel cysteine-rich motif and homeodomain in the product of the Caenorhabditis elegans cell lineage gene lin-II

Nature volume 344, pages 876–879 (1990)Cite this article

Abstract

THE genelin-11 is required for the asymmetric division of a vulval precursor cell type in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Putative lin-11 complementary DNAs were sequenced and found to encode a protein that contains both a homeodomain and two tandem copies of a novel cysteine-rich motif: C-X2-C-X17–19-H-X2-C-X2-C-X2-C-X7–11-(C)-X8-C. Two tandem copies of this motif are also present amino-terminal to the homeodomains in the proteins encoded by the genes mec-3, which is required for C. elegans touch neuron differentiation1, and isl-1, which encodes a rat insulin I gene enhancer-binding protein2. The arrangement of cysteine residues in this motif, referred to as LIM (for lin-11 isl-1 mec-3), suggests that this region is a metal-binding domain. The presence in these three proteins of both a potential metal-binding domain and a homeodomain distinguishes them from previously characterized proteins.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 56-629, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139, USA

    Gwen Freyd, Stuart K. Kim & H. Robert Horvitz

  2. Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford Medical School, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Stuart K. Kim

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  1. Gwen Freyd
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  2. Stuart K. Kim
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  3. H. Robert Horvitz
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Freyd, G., Kim, S. & Horvitz, H. Novel cysteine-rich motif and homeodomain in the product of the Caenorhabditis elegans cell lineage gene lin-II. Nature 344, 876–879 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/344876a0

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