Reference Report

Reference
Citation	Rincon-Limas, D.E., Lu, C.H., Canal, I., Calleja, M., Rodriguez-Esteban, C., Izpisua-Belmonte, J.C., Botas, J. (1999). Conservation of the expression and function of apterous orthologs in Drosophila and mammals. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96(5): 2165--2170. (Export to RIS)
FlyBase ID	FBrf0107953
Publication Type	Research paper
PubMed ID	10051612
PubMed Abstract	The Drosophila apterous (ap) gene encodes a protein of the LIM-homeodomain family. Many transcription factors of this class have been conserved during evolution; however, the functional significance of their structural conservation is generally not known. ap is best known for its fundamental role as a dorsal selector gene required for patterning and growth of the wing, but it also has other important functions required for neuronal fasciculation, fertility, and normal viability. We isolated mouse (mLhx2) and human (hLhx2) ap orthologs, and we used transgenic animals and rescue assays to investigate the conservation of the Ap protein during evolution. We found that the human protein LHX2 is able to regulate correctly ap target genes in the fly, causes the same phenotypes as Ap when ectopically produced, and most importantly rescues ap mutant phenotypes as efficiently as the fly protein. In addition, we found striking similarities in the expression patterns of the Drosophila and murine genes. Both mLhx2 and ap are expressed in the respective nerve cords, eyes, olfactory organs, brain, and limbs. These results demonstrate the conservation of Ap protein function across phyla and argue that aspects of its expression pattern have also been conserved from a common ancestor of insects and vertebrates.
DOI
Related Publication(s)
Recent Updates
Description	What does this section display? This section contains items that were added to this record for each release. It currently only tracks new links between this FlyBase report and other FlyBase data classes (e.g. genes, references, stocks) or controlled vocabulary terms (e.g. GO, anatomy terms). What does this section not display? This section does not currently display links that were removed or gene model changes.
Update Feed	Click the icon below to subscribe to this FlyBase record and receive updates automatically through your feed reader.
FB2013_03
FB2013_02
All updates	Click here to see a list of all updates to this record from FB2010_08 and on.
Associated Information
Comments
Associated Files
Other Information
Secondary IDs
Language of Publication	English
Additional Languages of Abstract
Also Published As
Parent Publication
Publication Type	Journal
Abbreviation	Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
Title	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publication Year	1915-
ISBN/ISSN	0027-8424
Data from Reference
Alleles (16)
	ap^md544 ap^Scer\UAS.cRa ap^UGO35 Avic\GFP^{Scer\UAS.T:Btau\MAPT} Ecol\lacZ^ap-rK568 Ecol\lacZ^fng-35UZ-1 Ecol\lacZ^Scer\UAS.cBa Ecol\lacZ^vg.int2.1 Ecol\lacZ^wg-en11 Hsap\LHX2^Scer\UAS.cRa Scer\GAL4^32B Scer\GAL4^ap-md544 Scer\GAL4^dpp.blk1 Scer\GAL4^ptc-559.1 Scer\GAL4^VNC.ap w^+mC
Constructs (7)
	P{ap-GAL4.VNC} P{GAL4-dpp.blk1} P{UAS-ap.R} P{UAS-GFP.btau} P{UAS-Hsap\LHX2.R} P{UAS-lacZ.B} P{vg(D/V)-lacZ}
Genes (9)
	ap Avic\GFP Btau\MAPT Ecol\lacZ Hsap\LHX2 Scer\GAL4 Ser T:Btau\MAPT w
Insertions (6)
	P{35UZ}fng^35UZ-1 P{en1}wg^en11 P{GawB}32B P{GawB}ap^md544 P{GawB}ptc^559.1 P{PZ}ap^rK568
Transcripts (2)
	Ecol\lacZ^ap-rK568RA Scer\GAL4^VNC.apRA