RNA binding and translational suppression by bicoid.

The anterior determinant bicoid (bcd) of Drosophila is a homeodomain protein. It forms an anterior-to-posterior gradient in the embryo and activates, in a concentration-dependent manner, several zygotic segmentation genes during blastoderm formation. Its posterior counterpart, the homeodomain transcription factor caudal (cad), forms a concentration gradient in the opposite direction, emanating ...
from evenly distributed messenger RNA in the egg. In embryos lacking bcd activity as a result of mutation, the cad gradient fails to form and cad becomes evenly distributed throughout the embryo. This suggests that bcd may act in the region-specific control of cad mRNA translation. Here we report that bcd binds through its homeodomain to cad mRNA in vitro, and exerts translational control through a bcd-binding region of cad mRNA.
Mesh Terms:
Animals, Base Sequence, Binding Sites, DNA Primers, Diptera, Drosophila, Drosophila Proteins, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Homeodomain Proteins, Insect Hormones, Molecular Sequence Data, Protein Binding, Protein Biosynthesis, RNA, Messenger, RNA-Binding Proteins, Recombinant Fusion Proteins, Trans-Activators, Transcription Factors, Transfection
Nature
Date: Feb. 22, 1996
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