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Van Auken K, Weaver D, Robertson B, Sundaram M, Saldi T, Edgar L, Elling U, Lee M, Boese Q, Wood WB: Roles of the Homothorax/Meis/Prep homolog UNC-62 and the Exd/Pbx homologs CEH-20 and CEH-40 in C. elegans embryogenesis. Development. 2002 Nov;129(22):5255-68.
Co-factor homeodomain proteins such as Drosophila Homothorax (Hth) and Extradenticle (Exd) and their respective vertebrate homologs, the Meis/Prep and Pbx proteins, can increase the DNA-binding specificity of Hox protein transcription factors and appear to be required for many of their developmental functions. We show that the unc-62 gene encodes the C. elegans ortholog of Hth, and that maternal-effect unc-62 mutations can cause severe posterior disorganization during embryogenesis (Nob phenotype), superficially similar to that seen in embryos lacking function of either the two posterior-group Hox genes nob-1 and php-3 or the caudal homolog pal-1. Other zygotically acting unc-62 alleles cause earlier embryonic arrest or incompletely penetrant larval lethality with variable morphogenetic defects among the survivors, suggesting that unc-62 functions are required at several stages of development. The differential accumulation of four unc-62 transcripts is consistent with multiple functions. The C. elegans exd homologs ceh-20 and ceh-40 interact genetically with unc-62 and may have overlapping roles in embryogenesis: neither CEH-20 nor CEH-40 appears to be required when the other is present, but loss of both functions causes incompletely penetrant embryonic lethality in the presence of unc-62 (+) and complete embryonic lethality in the presence of an unc-62 hypomorphic allele. |
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