Senseless acts as a binary switch during sensory organ precursor selection
- Hamed Jafar-Nejad1,7,
- Melih Acar2,7,
- Riitta Nolo1,6,
- Haluk Lacin3,
- Hongling Pan3,
- Susan M. Parkhurst5, and
- Hugo J. Bellen1,2,3,4,8
- 1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
- 2 Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
- 3 Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
- 4 Division of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
- 5 Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA
Abstract
During sensory organ precursor (SOP) specification, a single cell is selected from a proneural cluster of cells. Here, we present evidence that Senseless (Sens), a zinc-finger transcription factor, plays an important role in this process. We show that Sens is directly activated by proneural proteins in the presumptive SOPs and a few cells surrounding the SOP in most tissues. In the cells that express low levels of Sens, it acts in a DNA-binding-dependent manner to repress transcription of proneural genes. In the presumptive SOPs that express high levels of Sens, it acts as a transcriptional activator and synergizes with proneural proteins. We therefore propose that Sens acts as a binary switch that is fundamental to SOP selection.
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Footnotes
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Article and publication are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1122403.
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↵7 These authors contributed equally to this work.
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↵6 Present address: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
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↵8 Corresponding author. E-MAIL hbellen{at}bcm.tmc.edu; FAX (713) 798-3694.
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- Accepted October 17, 2003.
- Received June 13, 2003.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
