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PMID: 1588951 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article

Point mutations in the Drosophila hairy gene demonstrate in vivo requirements for basic, helix-loop-helix, and WRPW domains.

Molecular and cellular biology ·Vol. 12 ·No. 6 ·1992-06-00 ·Pages 2475-83

Wainwright SM, Ish-Horowicz D

Abstract

The Drosophila pair-rule gene, hairy (h), encodes a nuclear basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein that regulates embryonic segmentation and adult bristle patterning. In both cases, the h protein behaves as a transcriptional repressor. In this study, we determined the molecular nature of 12 h alleles. One mutation maps within the HLH domain, consistent with h function requiring homodimerization or heterodimerization with other HLH proteins. A second mutation lies in the basic domain, suggesting that DNA binding is required for h activity. Several mutations show that the h C terminus, in particular the WRPW domain, is also required for h activity, perhaps by interacting with other proteins to mediate transcriptional repression. We show that the h protein in Drosophila virilis closely resembles that in D. melanogaster and includes completely conserved bHLH and WRPW domains.

Related Genes
h
MeSH Terms
Amino Acid Sequence Animals Base Sequence Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors DNA Mutational Analysis DNA-Binding Proteins/physiology Drosophila/embryology,genetics Drosophila Proteins Genes Insect Hormones/physiology Insect Proteins Molecular Sequence Data Polymerase Chain Reaction Repressor Proteins Sequence Alignment Species Specificity Structure-Activity Relationship Transcription Factors/physiology
Chemicals
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors DNA-Binding Proteins Drosophila Proteins Insect Hormones Insect Proteins Repressor Proteins Transcription Factors hairy protein, Drosophila hairy protein, insect
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Wainwright S M
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, England.
Ish-Horowicz D
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Article Info
Journal
Molecular and cellular biology
Abbr.
Mol Cell Biol
ISSN
0270-7306
DOI
10.1128/mcb.12.6.2475-2483.1992
Published
1992-06-00
Pages
2475-83
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8109087
PMCID
PMC364440
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
M87885
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/mcb.12.6.2475-2483.1992 PMC Full Text View journal details
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