Reference Report

Reference
Citation	Gonzalez-Reyes, A., Elliott, H., St. Johnston, D. (1997). Oocyte determination and the origin of polarity in Drosophila: the role of the spindle genes. Development 124(24): 4927--4937. (Export to RIS)
FlyBase ID	FBrf0100046
Publication Type	Research paper
PubMed ID	9362456
PubMed Abstract	The two main body axes in Drosophila become polarised as a result of a series of symmetry-breaking steps during oogenesis. Two of the sixteen germline cells in each egg chamber develop as pro-oocytes, and the first asymmetry arises when one of these cells is selected to become the oocyte. Anterior-posterior polarity originates when the oocyte then comes to lie posterior to the nurse cells and signals through the Gurken/Egfr pathway to induce the adjacent follicle cells to adopt a posterior fate. This directs the movement of the germinal vesicle and associated gurken mRNA from the posterior to an anterior corner of the oocyte, where Gurken protein signals for a second time to induce the dorsal follicle cells, thereby polarising the dorsal-ventral axis. Here we describe a group of five genes, the spindle loci, which are required for each of these polarising events. spindle mutants inhibit the induction of both the posterior and dorsal follicle cells by disrupting the localisation and translation of gurken mRNA. Moreover, the oocyte often fails to reach the posterior of mutant egg chambers and differentiates abnormally. Finally, double mutants cause both pro-oocytes to develop as oocytes, by delaying the choice between these two cells. Thus, these mutants reveal a novel link between oocyte selection, oocyte positioning and axis formation in Drosophila, leading us to propose that the spindle genes act in a process that is common to several of these events.
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Language of Publication	English
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Publication Type	Journal
Abbreviation	Development
Title	Development
Publication Year	1987-
ISBN/ISSN	0950-1991
Data from Reference
Aberrations (4)
	Df(3L)pbl-X1 Df(3R)red3l Df(3R)sbd105 Df(3R)Tl-P
Alleles (18)
	Ecol\lacZ^slbo-01310 fs(1)K10¹ mus301⁰⁹⁴ mus301⁴²² mus301⁶⁶⁰ spn-A¹ spn-A² spn-A³ spn-B¹ spn-B² spn-D¹ spn-D² spn-D³ spn-E¹ spn-E² spn-E^hls-03987 spn-E^hls-Δ125 spn-E^hls-Δ157
Genes (12)
	bcd BicD Ecol\lacZ fs(1)K10 grk mus301 orb osk spn-A spn-B spn-D spn-E
Insertions (1)
	P{PZ}slbo⁰¹³¹⁰