Function of trans-acting genes of theachaete-scute complex in sensory organ patterning in the mesonotum ofDrosophila

The central regulatory circuit in the gene network controlling the morphogenesis of Drosophila mechanoreceptors: an in silico analysis

Identification of the mechanisms underlying the genetic control of spatial structure formation is among the relevant tasks of developmental biology. Both experimental and theoretical approaches and methods are used for this purpose, including gene network methodology, as well as mathematical and computer modeling. Reconstruction and analysis of the gene networks that provide the formation of traits allow us to integrate the existing experimental data and to identify the key links and intra-network connections that ensure the function of networks. Mathematical and computer modeling is used to obtain the dynamic characteristics of the studied systems and to predict their state and behavior. An example of the spatial morphological structure is the Drosophila bristle pattern with a strictly defined arrangement of its components - mechanoreceptors (external sensory organs) - on the head and body. The mechanoreceptor develops from a single sensory organ parental cell (SOPC), which is isolated from the ectoderm cells of the imaginal disk. It is distinguished from its surroundings by the highest content of proneural proteins (ASC), the products of the achaete-scute proneural gene complex (AS-C). The SOPC status is determined by the gene network we previously reconstructed and the AS-C is the key component of this network. AS-C activity is controlled by its subnetwork - the central regulatory circuit (CRC) comprising seven genes: AS-C, hairy, senseless (sens), charlatan (chn), scratch (scrt), phyllopod (phyl), and extramacrochaete (emc), as well as their respective proteins. In addition, the CRC includes the accessory proteins Daughterless (DA), Groucho (GRO), Ubiquitin (UB), and Seven-in-absentia (SINA). The paper describes the results of computer modeling of different CRC operation modes. As is shown, a cell is determined as an SOPC when the ASC content increases approximately 2.5-fold relative to the level in the surrounding cells. The hierarchy of the effects of mutations in the CRC genes on the dynamics of ASC protein accumulation is clarified. AS-C as the main CRC component is the most significant. The mutations that decrease the ASC content by more than 40 % lead to the prohibition of SOPC segregation.

Notch signaling patterns Drosophila mesodermal segments by regulating the bHLH transcription factor twist

One of the first steps in embryonic mesodermal differentiation is allocation of cells to particular tissue fates. In Drosophila, this process of mesodermal subdivision requires regulation of the bHLH transcription factor Twist. During subdivision, Twist expression is modulated into stripes of low and high levels within each mesodermal segment. High Twist levels direct cells to the body wall muscle fate, whereas low levels are permissive for gut muscle and fat body fate. We show that Su(H)-mediated Notch signaling represses Twist expression during subdivision and thus plays a critical role in patterning mesodermal segments. Our work demonstrates that Notch acts as a transcriptional switch on mesodermal target genes, and it suggests that Notch/Su(H) directly regulates twist, as well as indirectly regulating twist by activating proteins that repress Twist. We propose that Notch signaling targets two distinct 'Repressors of twist' - the proteins encoded by the Enhancer of split complex [E(spl)C] and the HLH gene extra machrochaetae (emc). Hence, the patterning of Drosophila mesodermal segments relies on Notch signaling changing the activities of a network of bHLH transcriptional regulators, which, in turn, control mesodermal cell fate. Since this same cassette of Notch, Su(H) and bHLH regulators is active during vertebrate mesodermal segmentation and/or subdivision, our work suggests a conserved mechanism for Notch in early mesodermal patterning.

Echinoid synergizes with the Notch signaling pathway in Drosophila mesothorax bristle patterning

echinoid (ed) encodes an immunoglobulin domain-containing cell adhesion molecule that negatively regulates the Egfr signaling pathway during Drosophila photoreceptor development. We show a novel function of Ed, i.e. the restriction of the number of notum bristles that arise from a proneural cluster. Thus, loss-of-function conditions for ed give rise to the development of extra macrochaetae near the extant ones and increase the density of microchaetae. Analysis of ed mosaics indicates that extra sensory organ precursors (SOPs) arise from proneural clusters of achaete-scute expression in a cell-autonomous way. edembryos also exhibit a neurogenic phenotype. These phenotypes suggest a functional relation between ed and the Notch (N) pathway. Indeed,loss-of-function of ed reduces the expression of the N pathway effector E(spl)m8 in proneural clusters. Moreover, combinations of moderate loss-of-function conditions for ed and for different components of the N pathway show clear synergistic interactions manifested as strong neurogenic bristle phenotypes. We conclude that Ed is not essential for, but it facilitates, N signaling. It is known that the N and Egfr pathways act antagonistically in bristle development. Consistently, we find that Ed also antagonizes the bristle-promoting activity of the Egfr pathway, either by the enhancement of N signalling or, similar to the eye, by a more direct action on the Egfr pathway.

The Abruptex domain of Notch regulates negative interactions between Notch, its ligands and Fringe

The Notch signalling pathway regulates cell fate choices during both vertebrate and invertebrate development. In the Drosophila wing disc, the activation of Notch by its ligands Delta and Serrate is required to make the dorsoventral boundary, where several genes, such as wingless and cut, are expressed in a 2- to 4-cell-wide domain. The interactions between Notch and its ligands are modulated by Fringe via a mechanism that may involve post-transcriptional modifications of Notch. The ligands themselves also help to restrict Notch activity to the dorsoventral boundary cells, because they antagonise the activation of the receptor in the cells where their expression is high. This function of the ligands is critical to establish the polarity of signalling, but very little is known about the mechanisms involved in the interactions between Notch and its ligands that result in suppression of Notch activity. The extracellular domain of Notch contains an array of 36 EGF repeats, two of which, repeats 11 and 12, are necessary for direct interactions between Notch with Delta and Serrate. We investigate here the function of a region of the Notch extracellular domain where several missense mutations, called Abruptex, are localised. These Notch alleles are characterised by phenotypes opposite to the loss of Notch function and also by complex complementation patterns. We find that, in Abruptex mutant discs, only the negative effects of the ligands and Fringe are affected, resulting in the failure to restrict the expression of cut and wingless to the dorsoventral boundary. We suggest that Abruptex alleles identify a domain in the Notch protein that mediates the interactions between Notch, its ligands and Fringe that result in suppression of Notch activity.

A widespread and early requirement for a novel Notch function during Drosophila embryogenesis

The Notch pathway plays a key role in the formation of many tissues and cell types in Metazoans. We recently showed that Notch acts in two pathways to determine muscle precursor fates. The first is the "standard" Notch pathway, in which Delta activates the Notch receptor, which then translocates into the nucleus in conjunction with Su(H) to reprogram transcription patterns and bring about changes in cell fates. The second pathway is poorly defined, but known to be independent of the ligands and downstream effectors of the standard pathway. The standard pathway is required in many different developmental contexts and we wondered if there was also a general requirement for the novel pathway. Here we show that the novel Notch pathway is required for the development of each of five examined cell types. These results indicate that the novel pathway is a widespread and fundamental component of Notch function. We further show that both Notch pathways operate in the differentiation of the same cell types. In such cases, the novel pathway acts first and appears to set up or limit the size of equivalence groups. The standard pathway then acts within the equivalence groups to limit individual cell fates.

Discrete enhancer elements mediate selective responsiveness of enhancer of split complex genes to common transcriptional activators

In Drosophila, genes of the Enhancer of split Complex [E(spl)-C] are important components of the Notch (N) cell-cell signaling pathway, which is utilized in imaginal discs to effect a series of cell fate decisions during adult peripheral nervous system development. Seven genes in the complex encode basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcriptional repressors, while 4 others encode members of the Bearded family of small proteins. A striking diversity is observed in the imaginal disc expression patterns of the various E(spl)-C genes, suggestive of a diversity of function, but the mechanistic basis of this variety has not been elucidated. Here we present strong evidence from promoter-reporter transgene experiments that regulation at the transcriptional level is primarily responsible. Certain E(spl)-C genes were known previously to be direct targets of transcriptional activation both by the N-signal-dependent activator Suppressor of Hairless [Su(H)] and by the proneural bHLH proteins achaete and scute. Our extensive sequence analysis of the promoter-proximal upstream regions of 12 transcription units in the E(spl)-C reveals that such dual transcriptional activation is likely to be the rule for at least 10 of the 12 genes. We next show that the very different wing imaginal disc expression patterns of E(spl)m4 and E(spl)mgamma are a property of small (200-300 bp), evolutionarily conserved transcriptional enhancer elements, which can confer these distinct patterns on a heterologous promoter despite their considerable structural similarity [each having three Su(H) and two proneural protein binding sites]. We also demonstrate that the characteristic inactivity of the E(spl)mgamma enhancer in the notum and margin territories of the wing disc can be overcome by elevated activity of the N receptor. We conclude that the distinctive expression patterns of E(spl)-C genes in imaginal tissues depend to a significant degree on the capacity of their transcriptional cis-regulatory apparatus to respond selectively to direct proneural- and Su(H)-mediated activation, often in only a subset of the territories and cells in which these modes of regulation are operative.

Evidence for a novel Notch pathway required for muscle precursor selection in Drosophila

The Notch pathway mediates cell fate choice in many species and developmental contexts. In the Drosophila mesoderm, phenotypic differences were observed when different components of the pathway were defective. To determine if these differences reflect variations in the signaling pathway or in the persistence of wild-type maternal products, we examined muscle precursors in embryos that lacked both maternally- and zygotically-derived gene products, called holonull embryos. Most holonull neurogenic embryos have the same number and arrangement of extra muscle precursors, but in Notch holonull embryos many additional cells also become muscle precursors. Thus Notch is active in cells where its known ligands and downstream effectors are not. These results indicate that Notch acts in two pathways to determine cell fates in mesoderm: the Delta-to-Notch-to-Suppressor of Hairless-to-Enhancer of split signaling pathway previously defined, and a second pathway that acts independently.

Contribution of the geneextramacrochaetae to the precise positioning of bristles inDrosophila

We examine the effect of mutations in theextramacrochaetae (emc) gene on the positioning of macrochaetes on the notum ofDrosophila. We show that, inemc mutants, most of the precursor cells appear earlier than in wild-type individuals, consistent with an antagonizing effect ofemc on the action of the proneural genesachaete andscute. We also show that reducingemc function affects the position of three bristles and/or of their precursors, but has no marked effect on the positioning of the other bristles.

Roles of the Notch gene in Drosophila wing morphogenesis

The Notch gene encodes a transmembrane protein that functions as a receptor of intercellular signals in many developmental processes of Drosophila. We study here the Notch function in wing morphogenesis and vein patterning in genetic mosaics of both Notch null and Notch gain-of-function alleles. Cell proliferation and differentiation properties of mutant Notch cells define three different Notch requirements in the wing: in imaginal disc cell proliferation, in restriction of vein differentiation and in margin formation. The study of Notch mosaics in different mutant backgrounds reveals that Notch activity during epidermal cell proliferation and wing vein differentiation is exerted by its regulation of a common group of genes involved in the specification and restriction of vein competent regions.

Position-reading and the emergence of sense organ precursors in Drosophila

Genetic analysis of development in Drosophila melanogaster has advanced our understanding of "position reading", where the expression of particular genes informs a cell of its position in the developing animal. The first step in localization of fly sense organs is the local expression of a gene conferring neural competence on epidermal cells. The four genes of the achaete-scute (AS-C) complex play crucial roles in the localization of sense organs. The resolution of local expression of AS-C genes along one dimension is about 10%; accuracy is improved by the balancing local expression of AS-C antagonist genes such as extramacrochaete. Position reading seems to depend primarily on such patterns of gene expression, and not upon the compartmental identity of the cells. No evidence has been found for differing roles of the four AS-C genes in the generation of sense organ progenitor cells or in the specification of neuronal properties of innervating neurons. The formation of each sense organ may be a unique case where the different proneural and neurogenic gene products have varying importance, and fortuitous local effects acting on this complex combination of factors have come to be important. The fly may be evolving from a flexible regular pattern to an inflexible irregular pattern strongly dependent on local factors, turning the fly into a crystallized system. (Written by R. Wayne Davies.).

The basic-helix-loop-helix domain of Drosophila lethal of scute protein is sufficient for proneural function and activates neurogenic genes

The development of most epidermal sensory organs in Drosophila is controlled by achaete and scute, two of the genes of the achaete-scute complex (AS-C). The genes of the AS-C encode members of the basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) class of transcriptional regulators, and their activity defines proneural cell clusters in the imaginal discs from which sensory organ mother cells are singled out by a process of lateral inhibition. Ectopic expression of lethal of scute, another member of the AS-C, normally dispensable for sensory organ development in the adult, promotes this process independently of the activity of the other AS-C genes. This demonstrates a high degree of functional redundancy of the products of the AS-C. Furthermore, neurogenic genes are activated in ectopic proneural clusters, allowing development of epidermal progenitor cells. Finally, the bHLH domain is necessary and sufficient to mediate the proneural function, to activate neurogenic genes, and to allow lateral inhibition.

Antineurogenic phenotypes induced by truncated Notch proteins indicate a role in signal transduction and may point to a novel function for Notch in nuclei

Loss of any one of several neurogenic genes of Drosophila results in overproduction of embryonic neuroblasts at the expense of epidermoblasts. In this paper a variety of altered Notch proteins are expressed in transgenic flies. Dominant lethal, antineurogenic phenotypes were produced by expression of three classes of mutant proteins: (1) a protein comprised of the cytoplasmic domain of Notch and devoid of sequences permitting membrane association; (2) a transmembrane protein lacking the extracellular, lin12/Notch repeats; and (3) transmembrane proteins carrying amino acid substitutions replacing one or both extracellular cysteines thought to be involved in Notch dimerization. These Notch proteins not only suppress the neural hypertrophy observed in Notch- embryos, but also generate a phenotype in which elements of the embryonic nervous system are underproduced. Action of the intracellular cdc10 repeats appears to be essential for wild-type Notch function or for the antineurogenic activity of these proteins. The activities of the dominant, gain-of-function proteins indicate that Notch functions as a signal transducing receptor during ectoderm development. Production of antineurogenic Notch proteins in embryos deficient for the other neurogenic genes allowed functional dependencies to be established. Delta, mastermind, bigbrain, and neuralized appear to function in elaboration of a signal upstream of Notch. Genes of the Enhancer of split complex act after Notch. The cytoplasmic domain of Notch contains nuclear localization sequences that function in cultured cells, and one of the Notch antineurogenic proteins, the cytoplasmic domain, accumulates in nuclei in vivo.

Proneural clusters of achaete-scute expression and the generation of sensory organs in the Drosophila imaginal wing disc

The proneural genes achaete (ac) and scute (sc) confer to Drosophila epidermal cells the ability to become sensory mother cells (SMCs). In imaginal discs, ac-sc are expressed in groups of cells, the proneural clusters, which are thought to delimit the areas where SMCs arise. We have visualized with the resolution of single cells the initial stages of sensory organ development by following the evolving pattern of proneural clusters and the emergence of SMCs. At reproducible positions within clusters, a small number of cells accumulate increased amounts of ac-sc protein. Subsequently, one of these cells, the SMC, accumulates the highest amount. Later, at least some SMCs become surrounded by cells with reduced ac-sc expression, a phenomenon probably related to lateral inhibition. Genetic mosaic analyses of cells with different doses of ac-sc genes, the sc expression in sc mutants, and the above findings show that the levels of ac-sc products are most important for SMC singling-out and SMC state maintenance. These products do not intervene in the differentiation of SMC descendants. The extramacrochaetae gene, an antagonist of proneural genes, negatively regulates sc expression, probably by interfering with activators of this gene.