Quantitative analysis of binding motifs mediating diverse spatial readouts of the Dorsal gradient in the Drosophila embryo.

ABSTRACT: Dorsal is a sequence-specific transcription factor that is distributed in a broad nuclear gradient across the dorsal-ventral (DV) axis of the early Drosophila embryo. It initiates gastrulation by regulating at least 30-50 target genes in a concentration-dependent fashion. Previous studies identified 18 enhancers that are directly regulated by different concentrations of Dorsal. Here, we employ computational methods to determine the basis for these distinct transcriptional outputs. Orthologous enhancers were identified in a variety of divergent Drosophila species, and their comparison revealed several conserved sequence features responsible for DV patterning. In particular, the quality of Dorsal and Twist recognition sequences correlates with the DV coordinates of gene expression relative t

SUBMITTER: Papatsenko D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC555988 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature