Dubnicoff, T., Valentine, S.A., Chen, G., Shi, T., Lengyel, J.A., Paroush, Z., Courey, A.J. (1997). Conversion of dorsal from an activator to a repressor by the global corepressor groucho. Genes Dev. 11(22): 2952--2957.
FlyBase ID
FBrf0099193
Publication Type
Research paper
Abstract
The Dorsal morphogen acts as both an activator and a repressor of transcription in the Drosophila embryo to regulate the expression of dorsal/ventral patterning genes. Circumstantial evidence has suggested that Dorsal is an intrinsic activator and that additional factors (corepressors) convert it into a repressor. These corepressors, however, have previously eluded definitive identification. We show here, via the analysis of embryos lacking the maternally encoded Groucho corepressor and via protein-binding assays, that recruitment of Groucho to the template by protein:protein interactions is required for the conversion of Dorsal from an activator to a repressor. Groucho is therefore a critical component of the dorsal/ventral patterning system.
