Inhibition of touch cell fate by egl-44 and egl-46 in C. elegans
- Ji Wu2,
- Anne Duggan1,2, and
- Martin Chalfie3
Abstract
In wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans, six cells develop as receptors for gentle touch. In egl-44 and egl-46mutants, two other neurons, the FLP cells, express touch receptor-like features. egl-44 and egl-46 also affect the differentiation of other neurons including the HSN neurons, two cells needed for egg laying. egl-44 encodes a member of the transcription enhancer factor family. The product of the egl-46gene, two Drosophila proteins, and two proteins in human and mice define a new family of zinc finger proteins. Both egl-44and egl-46 are expressed in FLP and HSN neurons (and other cells); expression of egl-46 is dependent on egl-44 in the FLP cells but not in the HSN cells. Wild-type touch cells expressegl-46 but not egl-44. Moreover, ectopic expression ofegl-44 in the touch cells prevents touch cell differentiation in an egl-46-dependent manner. The sequences of these genes and their nuclear location as seen with GFP fusions indicate that they repress transcription of touch cell characteristics in the FLP cells.
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Footnotes
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↵1 Present address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Neurobiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
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↵2 These authors contributed equally to this work.
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↵3 Corresponding author.
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E-MAIL mc21{at}columbia.edu; FAX (212) 865-8246.
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Article and publication are at www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.857401.
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- Received October 6, 2000.
- Accepted January 18, 2001.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
