TY - JOUR
T1 - The graded distribution of the dorsal morphogen is initiated by selective nuclear transport in Drosophila
AU - Rushlow, Christine A.
AU - Han, Kyuhyung
AU - Manley, James L.
AU - Levine, Michael
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Barbara Burke for assistance in DNA sequencing, and Kav-ita Arora and Rachel Kraut for advice and comments on the manuscript. We are grateful to Ruth Steward for providing materials and helpful guidance. C. A. R. would also like to thank Rahul Warrior, Ken Howard, and Bruce Wayne for encouragement during the course of this study. This work was supported by a grant from the American Cancer Society (NP-600) to C. A. R. and M. L. and a grant from the National Institutes of Health (GM 3797l) to M. L. and J. L. M The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advartisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
PY - 1989/12/22
Y1 - 1989/12/22
N2 - The maternal morphogen dorsal (dl) plays a key role in the establishment of dorsal-ventral polarity in Drosophila. We present evidence that the graded distribution of dl protein is initiated by selective nuclear transport. The dl protein is uniformly distributed throughout the cytoplasm of early embryos, but approximately 90 min after fertilization, dl protein present in ventral but not dorsal regions is selectively transported to the nucleus. Mutations in maternally active genes that regulate dl disrupt this transport process, resulting in an inactive, cytoplasmically localized form of the dl protein. Selective nuclear transport of dl protein was reproduced in tissue culture cells. The wild-type dl protein is largely restricted to the cytoplasm, while truncated proteins are predominantly localized within the nucleus. Transient cotransfection assays suggest that dl activates expression from several promoters in an apparently sequence-independent manner. We discuss the role of nuclear transport as a regulated process in gene expression and development.
AB - The maternal morphogen dorsal (dl) plays a key role in the establishment of dorsal-ventral polarity in Drosophila. We present evidence that the graded distribution of dl protein is initiated by selective nuclear transport. The dl protein is uniformly distributed throughout the cytoplasm of early embryos, but approximately 90 min after fertilization, dl protein present in ventral but not dorsal regions is selectively transported to the nucleus. Mutations in maternally active genes that regulate dl disrupt this transport process, resulting in an inactive, cytoplasmically localized form of the dl protein. Selective nuclear transport of dl protein was reproduced in tissue culture cells. The wild-type dl protein is largely restricted to the cytoplasm, while truncated proteins are predominantly localized within the nucleus. Transient cotransfection assays suggest that dl activates expression from several promoters in an apparently sequence-independent manner. We discuss the role of nuclear transport as a regulated process in gene expression and development.
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U2 - 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90772-1
DO - 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90772-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 2598265
AN - SCOPUS:0024839859
VL - 59
SP - 1165
EP - 1177
JO - Cell
JF - Cell
SN - 0092-8674
IS - 6
ER -