| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The hind gut of the Drosophila larvae is composed of 9 tissue compartments that are the units of tissue differentiation. Previously, we found a gene, aproctous (apro), that is expressed in all of the 9 compartments of the hindgut by the enhancer-trap screening. Mutant embryos that lack the apro gene function can not form the hindgut. In the present study, I carried out the molecular cloning of the the apro gene and epistatic analyzes of the apro with other genes that were expressed specifically in the hindgut, in order to clarify the role of the apro in the development of the hindgut. The following results were obtained.
1) cDNA of the gene were cloned sequenced. The sequencing of the apro cDNAs revealed that the apro is highly homologous to the mammmalian Brachyury gene, and also identical to the Drosophila Trg gene that was reported by Kispert et al (1994). The apro cDNA encodes a DNA-binding motif, T-domain, and assumed to be a transcription factor gene.
2) The expression of the apro gene were analyzed in various mutants that lack genes whose expression domains include or are adjacent to that of the apro. The expression pattern of the apro was affected in the mutant embryos of the two gap genes, tll and hkb. In the tll mutant, the expresison of the apro was completely abolished. In the hkb mutant, the expresison domain of the apro extended to the posterior terminal of the blastoderm. Under these positive and negative controls, the expression domain of the apro is restricted to 10-15%EL.The apro gene may functin as a master gene of the hindgut region of the Drosophila.
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