PUBLICATION

Rescue of Caenorhabditis elegans pharyngeal development by a vertebrate heart specification gene

Authors
Haun, C., Alexander, J., Stainier, D.Y., and Okkema, P.G.
ID
ZDB-PUB-990108-8
Date
1998
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America   95: 5072-5075 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Alexander, Jon, Stainier, Didier
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Caenorhabditis elegans/embryology*
  • Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics
  • Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Genes, Homeobox
  • Genetic Complementation Test
  • Heart/embryology*
  • Homeodomain Proteins/physiology*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Pharynx/embryology
  • Transcription Factors/physiology*
  • Xenopus Proteins*
PubMed
9560230 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Abstract
Development of pharyngeal muscle in nematodes and cardiac muscle in vertebrates and insects involves the related homeobox genes ceh-22, nkx2.5, and tinman, respectively. To determine whether the nematode and vertebrate genes perform similar functions, we examined activity of the zebrafish nkx2.5 gene in transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans. Here, we report that ectopic expression of nkx2.5 in C. elegans body wall muscle can directly activate expression of both the endogenous myo-2 gene, a ceh-22 target normally expressed only in pharyngeal muscle, and a synthetic reporter construct controlled by a multimerized CEH-22 binding site. nkx2.5 also efficiently rescues a ceh-22 mutant when expressed in pharyngeal muscle. Together, these results indicate that nkx2.5 and ceh-22 provide a single conserved molecular function. Further, they suggest that an evolutionarily conserved mechanism underlies heart development in vertebrates and insects and pharyngeal development in nematodes.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping