The Drosophila microRNA iab-4 causes a dominant homeotic transformation of halteres to wings
Abstract
The Drosophila Bithorax Complex encodes three well-characterized homeodomain proteins that direct segment identity, as well as several noncoding RNAs of unknown function. Here, we analyze the iab-4 locus, which produces the microRNAs iab-4-5p and iab-4-3p. iab-4 is analogous to miR-196 in vertebrate Hox clusters. Previous studies demonstrate that miR-196 interacts with the Hoxb8 3′ untranslated region. Evidence is presented that miR-iab-4-5p directly inhibits Ubx activity in vivo. Ectopic expression of mir-iab-4-5p attenuates endogenous Ubx protein accumulation and induces a classical homeotic mutant phenotype: the transformation of halteres into wings. These findings provide the first evidence for a noncoding homeotic gene and raise the possibility that other such genes occur within the Bithorax complex. We also discuss the regulation of mir-iab-4 expression during development.
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Footnotes
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Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1372505.
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Corresponding authors.
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↵3 E-MAIL laie{at}mskcc.org; FAX (212) 717-3604.
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↵4 E-MAIL mlevine{at}berkeley.edu; FAX (510) 643-5780.
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- Accepted October 31, 2005.
- Received September 6, 2005.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press