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An urbilaterian origin of the tripartite brain : developmental genetic insights from Drosophila

Hirth, Frank and Kammermeier, Lars and Frei, Erich and Walldorf, Uwe and Noll, Markus and Reichert, Heinrich. (2003) An urbilaterian origin of the tripartite brain : developmental genetic insights from Drosophila. Development, Vol. 130, H. 11. pp. 2365-2373.

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Official URL: http://edoc.unibas.ch/dok/A5250935

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Abstract

Studies on expression and function of key developmental control genes suggest that the embryonic vertebrate brain has a tripartite ground plan that consists of a forebrain/midbrain, a hindbrain and an intervening midbrain/hindbrain boundary region, which are characterized by the specific expression of the Otx, Hox and Pax2/5/8 genes, respectively. We show that the embryonic brain of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster expresses all three sets of homologous genes in a similar tripartite pattern. Thus, a Pax2/5/8 expression domain is located at the interface of brain-specific otd/Otx2 and unpg/Gbx2 expression domains anterior to Hox expression regions. We identify this territory as the deutocerebral/tritocerebral boundary region in the embryonic Drosophila brain. Mutational inactivation of otd/Otx2 and unpg/Gbx2 result in the loss or misplacement of the brain-specific expression domains of Pax2/5/8 and Hox genes. In addition, otd/Otx2 and unpg/Gbx2 appear to negatively regulate each other at the interface of their brain-specific expression domains. Our studies demonstrate that the deutocerebral/tritocerebral boundary region in the embryonic Drosophila brain displays developmental genetic features similar to those observed for the midbrain/hindbrain boundary region in vertebrate brain development. This suggests that a tripartite organization of the embryonic brain was already established in the last common urbilaterian ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes.
Faculties and Departments:05 Faculty of Science > Departement Biozentrum > Former Organization Units Biozentrum > Molecular Zoology (Reichert)
UniBasel Contributors:Reichert, Heinrich
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:Company of Biologists
ISSN:0950-1991
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
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Last Modified:22 Mar 2012 14:19
Deposited On:22 Mar 2012 13:16

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