Badenhorst P, Finch JT, Travers AA

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, England, UK. badenhop@pop.nci.nih.gov

Each sensory organ of the Drosophila peripheral nervous system is derived from a single sensory organ precursor cell (SOP). These originate in territories defined by expression of the proneural genes of the Achaete-Scute complex (AS-C). Formation of ectopic sensilla outside these regions is prevented by transcriptional repression of proneural genes. We demonstrate that the BTB/POZ-domain transcriptional repressor Tramtrack (Ttk) co-operates in this repression. Ttk is expressed ubiquitously, except in proneural clusters and SOPs. Ttk over-expression represses proneural genes and sensilla formation. Loss of Ttk enhances bristle-promoting mutants. Using neural repression as an assay, we dissected functional domains of Ttk, confirming the importance of the bric-a-brac-tramtrack-broad complex (BTB) motif. We show that the Ttk BTB domain is a protein-protein interaction motif mediating tetramer formation.

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