Expression pattern of Drosophila ret suggests a common ancestral origin between the metamorphosis precursors in insect endoderm and the vertebrate enteric neurons.

ABSTRACT: The RET gene, encoding a receptor tyrosine kinase, is unusual among human protooncogenes in that its mutant alleles are implicated in a developmental defect involving enteric neurons as well as in tumorigenesis. The cells affected in both types of disorders are derived from the neural crest. Targeted disruption of mouse ret has revealed an additional role in kidney development. Here we report the analysis of a ret homolog in Drosophila melanogaster, an arthropod with no neural crest. Drosophila ret (D-ret) encodes a protein of 1,235 amino acids that has all of the domains identified in the vertebrate ret, including a cadherin motif. During embryogenesis, D-ret mRNA is first detected in the yolk sac at the late gastrula stage. In the postgastrula, D-ret is expressed in the foregut neurons,

SUBMITTER: Hahn M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC14707 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature