...Barbara D. Page; Scott J. Diede; Jennifer R. Tenlen; Edwin L. Ferguson During early divisions of the C. elegans embryo, many maternally supplied determinants accumulate asymmetrically, and this asymmetry is crucial for proper cell fate specification. SKN-1, a transcription factor whose message...

.... (e-mail: [email protected] ) 28 07 1997 © 1997 by Company of Biologists 1997 Caenorhabditis elegans pattern formation vab-7 lp-1 apx-1 skn-1 pie-1 mex-3 pal-1 heat shock The study of numerous maternal effect genes in the C. elegans embryo has...

... to specify the cell fate patterns made by individual blastomeres. Examples of such regulators of blastomere identity include the maternal proteins MEX-3 and GLP-1, expressed at high levels anteriorly, and SKN-1 and PAL-1, expressed at high levels posteriorly in early embryos. To better define par gene...

... the putative transcription factor SKN-1. We present evidence that the primary factor determining the different responses to these two signals is the age of the AB descendants, not the identity of the signaling cell or ligand. Therefore, we suggest that time-dependent changes in factors within AB descendants...