Dampened regulates the activating potency of Bicoid and the embryonic patterning outcome in Drosophila

Junbo Liu and Jun Ma ()
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Junbo Liu: Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation
Jun Ma: Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The Drosophila morphogen gradient of Bicoid (Bcd) initiates anterior–posterior (AP) patterning; however, it is poorly understood how its ability to activate a target gene may have an impact on this process. Here we report an F-box protein, Dampened (Dmpd) as a nuclear cofactor of Bcd that can enhance its activating potency. We establish a quantitative platform to specifically investigate two parameters of a Bcd target gene response, expression amplitude and boundary position. We show that embryos lacking Dmpd have a reduced amplitude of Bcd-activated hunchback (hb) expression at a critical time of development. This is because of a reduced Bcd-dependent transcribing probability. This defect is faithfully propagated further downstream of the AP-patterning network to alter the spatial characteristics of even-skipped (eve) stripes. Thus, unlike another Bcd-interacting F-box protein Fate-shifted (Fsd), which controls AP patterning through regulating the Bcd gradient profile, Dmpd achieves its patterning role through regulating the activating potency of Bcd.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3968

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