Identification of a role for the iroquois complex in drosophila heart development
Dissertation
Faculties
Fakultät für NaturwissenschaftenAbstract
The Drosophila heart is a proven system for studying regulatory genes that are involved in cardiogenesis. The specification and differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells require complex interactions between a number of transcription factors.
The Drosophila Iroquois gene complex (Iro-C) consists of three homeobox transcription factors: araucan (ara), caupolican (caup) and mirror (mirr). The Iro-C participates in various developmental processes such as determining positional identity in different tissues in Drosophila. To determine whether the Iro-C also regulates cardiogenesis, the embryonic expression pattern of the Iro-C factors was characterized and heart phenotypes in different Iro-C mutant embryos were analyzed. Detailed expression pattern analysis of the members of the Iro-C revealed the existence of a subpopulation of pericardial cells, which co-express Even-skipped (Eve) and Ara/Caup and a novel set of heart-associated cells that are characterized by the expression of the different members of the Iro-C. Furthermore, the phenotypic studies integrate Iro-C into the network of transcription factors whose concerted action determines a cardiac fate and indicate that the GATA factor Pannier requires Iro-C activity to function in cardiogenesis. Additionally, this study demonstrates that Caup binds to the enhancer region of hand, a bHLH transcription factor expressed in the visceral mesoderm and in the heart, and that Caup regulates the transcriptional activity of a hand reporter construct. Taken together, this work provides a new basis for further studies aiming to decipher the regulatory interactions between the factors that determine different cell fates in the dorsal mesoderm.
Date created
2013
Subject headings
[GND]: Genregulation | Transkriptionsfaktor[LCSH]: Drosophila; Genetics | Homeobox genes
[Free subject headings]: Araucan transcription factor | Caupolican transcription factor | Dorsal mesoderm | Drosophila heart | Iroquois gene complex | Mirr transcription factor
[DDC subject group]: DDC 570 / Life sciences
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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18725/OPARU-2630
Mirzoyan, Zhasmine (2013): Identification of a role for the iroquois complex in drosophila heart development. Open Access Repositorium der Universität Ulm und Technischen Hochschule Ulm. Dissertation. http://dx.doi.org/10.18725/OPARU-2630
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