Uncoupling neurogenic gene networks in the Drosophila embryo
- 1Department of Molecular Biology, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA;
- 2Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
- Corresponding authors: msl2{at}princeton.edu, stas{at}princeton.edu
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↵3 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
The EGF signaling pathway specifies neuronal identities in the Drosophila embryo by regulating developmental patterning genes such as intermediate neuroblasts defective (ind). EGFR is activated in the ventral midline and neurogenic ectoderm by the Spitz ligand, which is processed by the Rhomboid protease. CRISPR/Cas9 was used to delete defined rhomboid enhancers mediating expression at each site of Spitz processing. Surprisingly, the neurogenic ectoderm, not the ventral midline, was found to be the dominant source of EGF patterning activity. We suggest that Drosophila is undergoing an evolutionary transition in central nervous system (CNS)-organizing activity from the ventral midline to the neurogenic ectoderm.
Keywords
- Drosophila embryo
- EGFR regulatory networks
- rhomboid
- intermediate neuroblasts defective
- central nervous system
Footnotes
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Supplemental material is available for this article.
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Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.297150.117.
- Received February 5, 2017.
- Accepted March 20, 2017.
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