Reference Report

Reference
Citation	Hudson, J.B., Podos, S.D., Keith, K., Simpson, S.L., Ferguson, E.L. (1998). The Drosophila Medea gene is required downstream of dpp and encodes a functional homolog of human Smad4. Development 125(8): 1407--1420. (Export to RIS)
FlyBase ID	FBrf0102608
Publication Type	Research paper
PubMed ID	9502722
PubMed Abstract	The Transforming Growth Factor-beta superfamily member decapentaplegic (dpp) acts as an extracellular morphogen to pattern the embryonic ectoderm of the Drosophila embryo. To identify components of the dpp signaling pathway, we screened for mutations that act as dominant maternal enhancers of a weak allele of the dpp target gene zerknŁllt. In this screen, we recovered new alleles of the Mothers against dpp (Mad) and Medea genes. Phenotypic analysis of the new Medea mutations indicates that Medea, like Mad, is required for both embryonic and imaginal disc patterning. Genetic analysis suggests that Medea may have two independently mutable functions in patterning the embryonic ectoderm. Complete elimination of maternal and zygotic Medea activity in the early embryo results in a ventralized phenotype identical to that of null dpp mutants, indicating that Medea is required for all dpp-dependent signaling in embryonic dorsal-ventral patterning. Injection of mRNAs encoding DPP or a constitutively activated form of the DPP receptor, Thick veins, into embryos lacking all Medea activity failed to induce formation of any dorsal cell fates, demonstrating that Medea acts downstream of the thick veins receptor. We cloned Medea and found that it encodes a protein with striking sequence similarity to human SMAD4. Moreover, injection of human SMAD4 mRNA into embryos lacking all Medea activity conferred phenotypic rescue of the dorsal-ventral pattern, demonstrating conservation of function between the two gene products.
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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 (3)
	Df(2L)C28 Df(3R)E40 Df(3R)Kpn-A
Alleles (23)
	dpp^fl.cFa dpp^hr4 dpp^hr56 Ecol\lacZ^Kr.amn Hsap\SMAD4^cHa Mad¹² Mad^cHa Mad^Ez Med⁴ Med¹¹ Med¹² Med¹³ Med¹⁴ Med¹⁵ Med¹⁶ Med¹⁷ Med¹⁸ Med^O513 snk² snk⁴ tkv^Q199D.cHa Tl³ zen¹
Constructs (1)
	P{Kr-lacZ.B}
Genes (15)
	anon-H31 anon-I7114 awd dpp Ecol\lacZ Hsap\SMAD4 Hsap\SRSF2 l(3)00720 Mad Med snk tkv Tl ttk zen