Pax6 genes encode transcription factors with two DNA-binding domains that are highly conserved during evolution. In Drosophila,two Pax6 genes function in a pathway in which twin of eyeless (toy) directly regulates eyeless (ey),which is necessary for initiating the eye developmental pathway. To investigate the gene duplication of Pax6 that occurred in holometabolous insects like Drosophila and silkworm, we used different truncated forms of toy and small eyes(sey), and tested their capacity to induce ectopic eye development in an ey-independent manner. Even though the Paired domains of TOY and SEY have DNA-binding properties that differ from those of the Paired domain of EY, they all are capable of inducing ectopic eye development in an eymutant background. We also show that one of the main functional differences between toy and ey lies in the C-terminal region of their protein products, implying differences in their transactivation potential. Furthermore, we show that only the homeodomain (HD) of EY is able to downregulate the expression of Distal-less (Dll), a feature that is required during endogenous eye development. These results suggest distinct functions of the two DNA-binding domains of TOY and EY, and significant evolutionary divergence between the two Drosophila Pax6genes.
Functional divergence between eyeless and twin of eyeless in Drosophila melanogaster
Present address: Harvard Medical School, Department of Genetics, 70 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Present address: Centre de Biologie du Development, Universite Paul Sabatier, Bat4R3, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France
Present address: Graduate Group in Microbiology, University of California at Berkeley, 401 Barker Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3202, USA
Present address: Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science, Tohoku University, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
Present address: Graduate Program in Genetics, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, NY 11794-5222, USA
Claudio Punzo, Serge Plaza, Makiko Seimiya, Pamela Schnupf, Shoichiro Kurata, Johannes Jaeger, Walter J. Gehring; Functional divergence between eyeless and twin of eyeless in Drosophila melanogaster. Development 15 August 2004; 131 (16): 3943–3953. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.01278
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