A major bristle QTL from a selected population of Drosophila uncovers the zinc-finger transcription factor poils-au-dos, a repressor of achaete-scute - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2005 Dec 1;288(1):194-205.

doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2005.09.032. Epub 2005 Oct 10.

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A major bristle QTL from a selected population of Drosophila uncovers the zinc-finger transcription factor poils-au-dos, a repressor of achaete-scute

Jean-Michel Gibert et al. Dev Biol. 2005.

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Abstract

Traditional screens aiming at identifying genes regulating development have relied on mutagenesis. Here, we describe a new gene involved in bristle development, identified through the use of natural variation and selection. Drosophila melanogaster bears a pattern of 11 macrochaetes per heminotum. From a population initially sampled in Marrakech, a strain was selected for an increased number of thoracic macrochaetes. Using recombination and single nucleotide polymorphisms, the factor responsible was mapped to a single locus on the third chromosome, poils au dos, that encodes a zinc-finger-ZAD protein. The original, as well as new, presumed null, alleles of poils au dos, is associated with ectopic achaete-scute expression that results in the additional bristles. This suggests a possible role for Poils au dos as a repressor of achaete and scute. Ectopic expression appears to be independent of the activity of known cis-regulatory enhancer sequences at the achaete-scute complex that mediate activation at specific sites on the notum. The target sequences for Poils au dos activity were mapped to a 14 kb region around scute. In addition, we show that pad interacts synergistically with the repressor hairy and with Dpp signaling in posterior and anterior regions of the notum, respectively.

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