眼睛发育与骨形成蛋白信号通路的关系

在早期胚胎发育过程中,眼睛是由起源于不同胚层的几个部分经过一系列的诱导作用以及时间和空间上的相互协调作用形成的复杂而又具有精确功能的器官。在眼睛的形成发育过程中,许多信号通路及其相关的调控因子发挥着重要作用。本文主要关注眼睛发育过程与骨形成蛋白(BMP)信号通路的关系,BMP信号的激活能够诱导晶状体的再生和CLT(角膜到晶状体的分化转移)进程,维持睫状体的功能,促进视网膜的发生,影响巩膜的重塑和泪腺的发育。很多眼部疾病的发生与BMP信号通路的调节紊乱密切相关,因此可以将BMP信号通路作为一个潜在的药物靶点来探究治疗眼部疾病的方法。本文就BMP信号通路对眼睛发育的影响作一综述。     

The lens in focus: a comparison of lens development in Drosophila and vertebrates

The evolution of the eye has been a major subject of study dating back centuries. The advent of molecular genetics offered the surprising finding that morphologically distinct eyes rely on conserved regulatory gene networks for their formation. While many of these advances often stemmed from studies of the compound eye of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and later translated to discoveries in vertebrate systems, studies on vertebrate lens development far outnumber those in Drosophila. This may be largely historical, since Spemann and Mangold's paradigm of tissue induction was discovered in the amphibian lens. Recent studies on lens development in Drosophila have begun to define molecular commonalities with the vertebrate lens. Here, we provide an overview of Drosophila lens development, discussing intrinsic and extrinsic factors controlling lens cell specification and differentiation. We then summarize key morphological and molecular events in vertebrate lens development, emphasizing regulatory factors and networks strongly associated with both systems. Finally, we provide a comparative analysis that highlights areas of research that would help further clarify the degree of conservation between the formation of dioptric systems in invertebrates and vertebrates.     

Coming to our senses

Sensory organs are specialized to receive different kinds of input from the outside world. However, common features of their development suggest that they could have a shared evolutionary origin. In a recent paper, Niwa et al. show that three Drosophila adult sensory organs all rely on the spatial signals Decapentaplegic and Wingless to specify their position, and the temporal signal ecdysone to initiate their development. The proneural gene atonal is an important site for integration of these regulatory inputs. These results suggest the existence of a primitive sensory organ precursor, which would differentiate according to the identity of its segment of origin. The authors argue that the eyeless gene controls eye disc identity, indirectly producing an eye from the sensory organ precursor within this disc.     

Expression of evolutionarily conserved eye specification genes during Drosophila embryogenesis

Eye specification in Drosophila is thought be controlled by a set of seven nuclear factors that includes the Pax6 homolog, Eyeless. This group of genes is conserved throughout evolution and has been repeatedly recruited for eye specification. Several of these genes are expressed within the developing eyes of vertebrates and mutations in several mouse and human orthologs are the underlying causes of retinal disease syndromes. Ectopic expression in Drosophila of any one of these genes is capable of inducing retinal development, while loss-of-function mutations delete the developing eye. These nuclear factors comprise a complex regulatory network and it is thought that their combined activities are required for the formation of the eye. We examined the expression patterns of four eye specification genes, eyeless (ey), sine oculis (so), eyes absent (eya), and dachshund (dac) throughout all time points of embryogenesis and show that only eyeless is expressed within the embryonic eye anlagen. This is consistent with a recently proposed model in which the eye primordium acquires its competence to become retinal tissue over several time points of development. We also compare the expression of Ey with that of a putative antennal specifying gene Distal-less (Dll). The expression patterns described here are quite intriguing and raise the possibility that these genes have even earlier and wide ranging roles in establishing the head and visual field.     

The Ca(2+)-calmodulin-activated protein phosphatase calcineurin negatively regulates EGF receptor signaling in Drosophila development

Calcineurin is a Ca(2+)-calmodulin-activated, Ser-Thr protein phosphatase that is essential for the translation of Ca(2+) signals into changes in cell function and development. We carried out a dominant modifier screen in the Drosophila eye using an activated form of the catalytic subunit to identify new targets, regulators, and functions of calcineurin. An examination of 70,000 mutagenized flies yielded nine specific complementation groups, four that enhanced and five that suppressed the activated calcineurin phenotype. The gene canB2, which encodes the essential regulatory subunit of calcineurin, was identified as a suppressor group, demonstrating that the screen was capable of identifying genes relevant to calcineurin function. We demonstrated that a second suppressor group was sprouty, a negative regulator of receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. Wing and eye phenotypes of ectopic activated calcineurin and genetic interactions with components of signaling pathways suggested a role for calcineurin in repressing Egf receptor/Ras signal transduction. On the basis of our results, we propose that calcineurin, upon activation by Ca(2+)-calmodulin, cooperates with other factors to negatively regulate Egf receptor signaling at the level of sprouty and the GTPase-activating protein Gap1.     

骨骼肌发育的分子遗传学

综述了近年来对骨骼肌发育中分子信号途径和MDFs家族成员调控作用的研究进展.MDFs可以直接控制肌肉结构基因的表达,也可以激活中间调控因子或它们共同控制肌源性表型.调控因子MEF2能作为MDF作用的媒介.Pax-3是肌肉发育的早期阶段中必不可少的.心肌和骨骼肌组织之间有许多相似性,二者基因表达的调控途径也有某种程度的保守性.