Abstract
Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the first cells specified in many organisms. In Drosophila, as in mammals, PGCs are formed at the posterior end outside of the embryonic proper. They are brought into the gut during gastrulation and then actively migrate through the gut epithelium into the mesoderm. They attach to the future gonadal mesoderm and coalesce, forming the gonads. Control of this migratory process is not yet completely understood. D-ets4 and its mammalian homologue Pdef are members of the evolutionarily conserved Ets family of transcription factors. Pdef has been shown to down-regulate the invasive and migratory potential of breast tumors. Our results show that the Drosophila D-ets4 protein is specifically expressed in PGCs before the onset of migration and is lost in the migratory and post-migratory PGCs. We also show that D-ets4 is not involved in other migratory events such as border cell migration during oogenesis. It is, however, expressed strongly in the pre-stage 10 oocyte nuclei and modestly in larval tissues such as imaginal discs and salivary glands, but not in the brain.
