Patterning of the Caenorhabditis elegans head region by the Pax-6 family member vab-3
- 1 September 1995
- journal article
- letter
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature
- Vol. 377 (6544) , 52-55
- https://doi.org/10.1038/377052a0
Abstract
THE Pax-6 genes are important for eye development in both vertebrates and Drosophila. Mutations in the human PAX6 gene are found in patients with a variety of eye disorders, including aniridia and Peters′ anomaly1á¤-3, and mutations in the Drosophila Pax-6 homologue cause the eyeless phenotype4. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans vab-3 mutants display many defects in head-region development, including aberrant morphogenesis, trans-formation of hypodermal (epidermal-like) cell fates to those of posterior homologues, and abnormal specification of neurons. Here we show that vab-3 is a member of the paired-domain-containing Pax-6 gene family and is expressed in head-region cells. This C. elegans Pax-6 locus can also encode proteins lacking the paired domain5. Our results suggest that a primordial role of the Pax-6 gene family could have been to pattern part of the head region, and that Pax-6 genes subsequently evolved to be more specifically involved in eye development.Keywords
This publication has 30 references indexed in Scilit:
- Post-embryonic cell lineages of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegansPublished by Elsevier ,2004
- Specification of sense-organ identity by a Caenorhabditis elegans Pax-6 homologueNature, 1995
- Mutations in the Caenorhabditis elegans Gene vab-3 Reveal Distinct Roles in Fate Specification and Unequal Cytokinesis in an Asymmetric Cell DivisionDevelopmental Biology, 1995
- Crystal structure of a paired domain-DNA complex at 2.5 å resolution reveals structural basis for pax developmental mutationsCell, 1995
- Homology of the eyeless Gene of Drosophila to the Small eye Gene in Mice and Aniridia in HumansScience, 1994
- PAX6 gene dosage effect in a family with congenital cataracts, aniridia, anophthalmia and central nervous system defectsNature Genetics, 1994
- Mutations at the PAX6 locus are found in heterogeneous anterior segment malformations including Peters' anomalyNature Genetics, 1994
- The human PAX6 gene is mutated in two patients with aniridiaNature Genetics, 1992
- undulated, a mutation affecting the development of the mouse skeleton, has a point mutation in the paired box of Pax 1Cell, 1988
- Specific neuroanatomical changes in chemosensory mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegansJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1977