| Budget Amount *help |
¥15,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥15,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥7,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥7,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
One of the fundamental questions in the developmental biology is how organ identity is determined. We have established a system, using transgenic Drosophila, which allows eye to wing, leg and antenna transformation by the activation of the Notch signaling. To determine the role of the Notch signaling in the transdetermination, we performed the GAL4-mediated gain-of-function mutant screen in the combination with the activation of the Notch signaling, using the GS strains in which a target sequence for GALA called UAS is inserted at random. Up to now about 10,000 strains were screened, and three strains were found to induce the eye to wing transformation. And the eye to antenna and the eye to leg transformation were induced in 23 strains and 11 strains, respectively. A novel gene encoding a Bromo-adjacent homology (BAH) domain protein was identified as a corresponding gene of a strain which induce the eye to wing transformation. The over-expression of the BAH domain protein was found to induce ectopic activation of the wing-specific enhancer of vestigial (vg) gene which regulates wing development, suggesting that the BAH domain protein regulates wing development up-stream of vg. Corresponding to this result, the BAH domain protein induced ectopic wings having antero-posterior and dorso-ventral axis which are not formed in the vg-induced ectopic wings. To confirm that the Notch signaling has similar function in the vertebrate development, we found that the Notch signaling regulates the expression of Pax6 gene in Xenopus eye development as well as Drosophila.
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