Different genetic requirements for anterior RNA localization revealed by the distribution of Adducin-like transcripts during Drosophila oogenesis

Creators: Ding, Dali; Parkhurst, Susan M.; Lipshitz, Howard D.

Abstract

The proteins encoded by polar-localized mRNAs play an important role in cell fate specification along the anteroposterior axis of the Drosophila embryo. The only maternally synthesized mRNA known previously to be localized to the anterior cortex of both the oocyte and the early embryo is the bicoid mRNA whose localization is required to generate a homeodomain protein gradient that specifies position along the anteroposterior embryonic axis. We have identified and characterized a second mRNA that is localized to the anterior pole of the oocyte and early embryo. This mRNA encodes a Drosophila homolog of mammalian adducin, a membrane-cytoskeleton-associated protein that promotes the assembly of the spectrin-actin network. A comparison of the spatial distribution of bicoid and Adducin-like transcripts in the maternal-effect RNA-localization mutants exuperantia, swallow, and staufen indicates different genetic requirements for proper localization of these two mRNAs to the anterior pole of the oocyte and early embryo.

Additional Information

© 1993 National Academy of Sciences. Communicated by Edward B. Lewis, December 9, 1992 (received for review October 30, 1992). We thank T. Hazelrigg, C. Nusslein-Volhard, T. Schupbach, D. St Johnston, and the Bowling Green Drosophila Stock Center for providing mutant Drosophila stocks; F. Kafatos and N. Brown for providing their cDNA library; W. Fisher and J. Angus for technical assistance; and S. Halsell, E. Meyerowitz, P. Stemnberg, D. Weigel, M. L. Yip, and K. Zinn for providing critical comments on the manuscript. D.D. was supported, in part, by graduate fellowships from the California Foundation for Biochemical Research and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This research was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Program Project Grant GM40499, the Searle Scholars Program of the Chicago Community Trust, and a Developmental Biology Grant from the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust to H.D.L. The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement". in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact.

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