Early Drosophila development is a coordinated series of temporal and spatial events leading to specific localized gene expression. The maternally expressed gene Bicaudal-C (Bic-C) encodes a KH-domain RNA binding protein required in the developing oocyte for anterior-posterior patterning and follicle cell migration. The dominant heterozygous phenotype results in the development of embryos with bicaudal and head defects. A two-hybrid screen using BIC-C as "bait" identified the novel protein ANTIMEROS (ATMS) and the SH3-domain containing protein MILE END (MILE). / ATMS is highly conserved between humans and mice, its expression is almost entirely female-specific, and is limited to certain developmental stages. Mutant alleles for atms are able to dominantly enhance the phenotype of Bic-C heterozygotes confirming the Bic-C-atms interaction. Here I show that NOS mislocalization causes the trans-heterozygous phenotype, as introduction of a nos mutation strongly suppresses the bicaudal phenotype. nos transcripts show a hyper-polyandenylation in atms mutant ovaries, an indicator of translational activation, suggesting that ATMS and BIC-C function as translational repressors of nos through changes in its poly(A) tail length. / MILE, contains two highly conserved SH3 domains at the C-terminus. Experiments involving the analysis of mutant alleles and overexpression mile transgenic lines show that MILE is a negative regulator of both Torso and Egfr RTK signaling. Its not clear what functional role BIC-C may have with RTK signaling, but recent evidence suggests that posterior group gene expression influence terminal pole RTK signaling.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.85634 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Paliouras, Miltiadis |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002227443, proquestno: AAINR12924, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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