Revisiting bicoid function: complete inactivation reveals an additional fundamental role in Drosophila egg geometry specification.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The bicoid (bcd) gene in Drosophila has served as a paradigm for a morphogen in textbooks for decades. Discovered in 1986 as a mutation affecting anterior development in the embryo, its expression pattern as a protein gradient later confirmed the prediction from transplantation experiments. These experiments suggested that the protein fulfills the criteria of a true morphogen, with the existence of a homeodomain crucial for activation of genes along the anterior-posterior axis, based on the concentration of the morphogen. The bcd gene undergoes alternative splicing, resulting in, among other isoforms, a small and often neglected isoform with low abundance, which lacks the homeodomain, termed small bicoid (smbcd). Most importantly, all known classical strong bcd alleles

SUBMITTER: Baumgartner S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10759373 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature