Abstract
The fly glial cell deficient/glial cell missing (glide/gcm) gene codes for a transcription factor that induces gliogenesis. Lack of its product eliminates lateral glial cells in the embryonic nervous system. Here we identify a second gene, glide2, that is homologous to glide/gcm in the binding domain and that is also necessary and sufficient to promote glial differentiation. glide2 codes for a transcription factor that displays a weaker and delayed expression compared with glide/gcm. The two genes, which are located 27 kb apart and share cis-regulatory elements, are able to auto- and cross-regulate, indicating that they form a gene complex. Finally, we show that lack of both products eliminates all lateral glial cells, which means that the two genes contain all the fly lateral glial promoting activity.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Amino Acid Sequence
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Animals
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Base Sequence
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Cell Differentiation
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DNA Primers
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DNA-Binding Proteins
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Drosophila Proteins*
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Drosophila melanogaster / embryology
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Drosophila melanogaster / genetics
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Drosophila melanogaster / physiology*
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Embryo, Nonmammalian / physiology
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Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
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In Situ Hybridization
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Larva
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Molecular Sequence Data
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Neuroglia / cytology
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Neuroglia / physiology*
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Neuropeptides / chemistry
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Neuropeptides / genetics*
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Neuropeptides / metabolism*
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Phylogeny
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Promoter Regions, Genetic
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Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
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Sequence Alignment
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Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
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Trans-Activators / chemistry
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Trans-Activators / genetics*
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Trans-Activators / metabolism*
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Transcription Factors / chemistry
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Transcription Factors / genetics*
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Transcription Factors / metabolism*
Substances
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DNA Primers
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DNA-Binding Proteins
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Drosophila Proteins
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GCM protein, Drosophila
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Gcm2 protein, Drosophila
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Neuropeptides
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Trans-Activators
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Transcription Factors