ABSTRACT
More than 40 years ago, studies of the Drosophila engrailed and Hox genes led to major discoveries that shaped the history of developmental biology. We learned that these genes define the state of determination of cells that populate particular spatially defined regions: the identity of segmental domains by Hox genes, and the identity of posterior developmental compartments by engrailed. Hence, the boundaries that delimit spatial domains depend on engrailed. Here, we review the engrailed field, which now includes orthologs in Drosophila and mouse, as well as many other animals. We focus on fly and mouse and highlight additional functions that span early stages of embryogenesis and neural development.
Footnotes
Funding
Work in the authors' labs is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (R37MH085726 and R01NS092096 to A.L.J.; R35GM112548 to T.K.), Cycle for Survival (A.L.J.), and a National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA008748-48 to A.L.J.). Deposited in PMC for release after 12 months.
