Dominant negative mutations of caenorhabditis elegans daf‐7 confer a novel developmental phenotype. Issue 6 (28th April 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Crook, Matt; Grant, Warwick N.
• Is Part Of: Developmental dynamics. Volume 242:Issue 6(2013:Jun.)
• Page Start: 654
• Page End: 664
• Publication Date: 2013-04-28
• Subjects: Morphogenesis -- Periodicals; Anatomy -- Periodicals; Anatomie -- Périodiques; Biologie du développement -- Périodiques; 571.833
• DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.23963
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1058-8388

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p> <underline>Background:</underline> TGF‐β signaling pathways are involved in the control of development in every member of the animal kingdom. As such, TGF‐β ligands are widely divergent yet retain a set of core conserved features, specifically, a pre‐protein cleavage site and several conserved ligand domain residues, the disruption of which produces a dominant negative phenotype. <underline>Results:</underline> We have extended these observations into an invertebrate system by creating a series of loss‐of‐function <italic>Caenorhabditis elegans daf‐7</italic> transgenes. When we tested these mutant transgenes in a <italic>daf‐7</italic>/+ background, we saw a molting and excretory canal phenotype. Members of both pathways downstream of <italic>daf‐4</italic> were required for this phenotype. <underline>Conclusions:</underline> Our results show that the basic mechanisms of TGF‐β function are conserved across the animal kingdom. A subset of our <italic>daf‐7</italic> mutations also produced an unexpected and novel phenotype. Epistasis experiments demonstrated that both <italic>daf‐3/‐5</italic> and <italic>sma‐4/‐9</italic> were downstream of our mutant <italic>daf‐7</italic> transgenes, which suggests not only a role for DAF‐7 in the control of molting and the development of the excretory system but also that <italic>daf‐7</italic> and <italic>dbl‐1</italic> signaling may converge downstream of their shared Type II receptor, <italic>daf‐4</italic>. Our approach may unveil new roles in development for other invertebrate TGF‐β ligands. <italic>Developmental Dynamics 242:654–664, 2013</italic>. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.</p> </abstract>