A Database of Drosophila Genes & Genomes

FB2013_03, released May 7th, 2013
 

Reference Report

Reference
Citation McNeil, G.P., Zhang, X., Roberts, M., Jackson, F.R. (1999). Maternal function of a retroviral-type zinc-finger protein is essential for Drosophila development.  Dev. Genet. 25(4): 387--396. (Export to RIS)
FlyBase ID FBrf0111974
Publication Type Research paper
PubMed ID 10570470
PubMed Abstract Previous studies have shown that zygotic expression of the Drosophila lark gene, which encodes an RNA-binding protein, is essential for embryogenesis. We now show that lark mRNA is abundant in preblastoderm (0-2 h) embryos, prior to zygotic transcription, indicative of maternal inheritance. Lark can also be detected within the nurse cells of developing egg chambers, suggesting a function for the protein during oogenesis. To test the hypothesis that the maternal inheritance of lark is required for oogenesis or early development, we employed the "FLP-DFS" technique to eliminate the lark maternal component within the germ line. Unfertilized and fertilized eggs lacking the lark maternal component exhibit a "fragile" phenotype, indicating that the protein functions during oogenesis. Furthermore, differentiation of the fertilized eggs is abnormal-most embryos arrest prior to blastoderm formation and exhibit morphological phenotypes that might reflect underlying defects in syncytial nuclear cycling or cellularization. Mutational analysis of a retroviral-type zinc finger within the lark protein indicates that it is required for the maternal function of the protein: females are completely sterile when their only source of lark protein contains a zinc-finger mutation. The aggregate of our studies shows that the germ-line expression of lark is essential for development, and suggests that the retroviral-type zinc finger mediates important RNA-binding functions during oogenesis and/or early development.
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Language of Publication English
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Publication Type Journal
Abbreviation Dev. Genet.
Title Developmental Genetics
Publication Year 1979-1999
ISBN/ISSN 0192-253X
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