Drosophila importin alpha1 performs paralog-specific functions essential for gametogenesis.

Importin alpha's mediate nuclear transport by linking nuclear localization signal (NLS)-containing proteins to importin beta1. Animal genomes encode three conserved groups of importin alpha's, alpha1's, alpha2's, and alpha3's, each of which are competent to bind classical NLS sequences. Using Drosophila melanogaster we describe the isolation and phenotypic characterization of the first animal importin alpha1 mutant. Animal alpha1's are more similar to ancestral plant and fungal alpha1-like genes than to animal alpha2 and alpha3 genes. Male and female importin alpha1 (Dalpha1) null flies developed normally to adulthood (with a minor wing defect) but were sterile with defects in gametogenesis. The Dalpha1 mutant phenotypes were rescued by Dalpha1 transgenes, but not by Dalpha2 or Dalpha3 transgenes. Genetic interactions between the ectopic expression of Dalpha1 and the karyopherins CAS and importin beta1 suggest that high nuclear levels of Dalpha1 are deleterious. We conclude that Dalpha1 performs paralog-specific activities that are essential for gametogenesis and that regulation of subcellular Dalpha1 localization may affect cell fate decisions. The initial expansion and specialization of the animal importin alpha-gene family may have been driven by the specialized needs of gametogenesis. These results provide a framework for studies of the more complex mammalian importin alpha-gene family.

The NOTCH receptor and its ligands.

An intricate interplay of signalling pathways dictates the acquisition of specific cell fates during development. The NOTCH receptor is the central element in a cell-interaction mechanism that controls the fate of a very broad spectrum of precursor cells. Conservation across species implies that signalling through this receptor is a tool frequently used by metazoans to modulate the fate of precursor cells. This article describes recent advances in the genetic and molecular dissection of this developmentally fundamental pathway that have provided new insights into the mechanism by which extracellular signals act through the NOTCH receptor to determine or alter cellular fate.

Molecular isolation and analysis of the erect wing locus in Drosophila melanogaster.

The molecular study of the erect wing (ewg) locus was initiated by isolating DNA in the 1A8-1B1 interval of the X chromosome. Previous developmental genetic analyses of the mutant alleles at the ewg locus have demonstrated that the wild-type ewg product is essential during embryogenesis and is required postembryonically at least for the development of the indirect flight muscle. To define the ewg-encoding DNA, chromosomal breakpoints that genetically flank the ewg locus were used. P-element-mediated transformation followed by subsequent rescue of the ewg-lethal alleles has defined a 11.5-kilobase genomic fragment as encoding the ewg locus. Northern blot analysis of transcription from this DNA has revealed a complex pattern of transcription with respect to both size and developmental profile. Tissue distribution of putative ewg transcription was examined by in situ hybridization to 6- to 14-h-old embryonic sections. These sections revealed that the expression of putative ewg messages is limited to the central nervous system-derived structures and not observed within the mesoderm during this developmental stage.

Beaded of Goldschmidt, an antimorphic allele of Serrate, encodes a protein lacking transmembrane and intracellular domains.

Serrate (Ser) is an essential gene in Drosophila melanogaster best known for the Ser dominant (SerD) allele and its effects on wing development. Animals heterozygous or homozygous for SerD are viable and exhibit loss of wing margin tissue and associated bristles and hairs. The Beaded of Goldschmidt (BdG) allele of Ser, when heterozygous to wild type, will also produce animals exhibiting loss of wing margin material. However, animals homozygous for BdG exhibit a larval lethal phenotype comparable to animals homozygous for loss-of-function Ser alleles. BdG is a partial duplication of the Ser locus with a single 5' Ser-homologous region and two distinct 3' regions. Meiotic recombination between BdG and a wild-type Ser chromosome demonstrated that only one DNA lesion, caused by the insertion of a transposable roo element into the coding regions of the Ser transcript, appears capable of generating BdG phenotypes. Due to the roo insertion, the protein product is predicted to be prematurely truncated and lack an extracellular cysteine-rich region along with the transmembrane and intracellular domains found within the normal SERRATE (SER) protein. The loss of these protein domains apparently contributes to the antimorphic nature of this mutation.

Moya-Moya disease in black adults.

We describe two instances of Moya-Moya disease in black adults. Little is known concerning the origin of this disease. Currently, there is no effective treatment.

Structural conservation of Notch receptors and ligands.

The Notch signalling pathway is an evolutionarily conserved cell-to-cell communication system utilized multiple times and in many tissues during development. The outcome of an interaction between Notch and its ligands is highly influenced by factors both extrinsic and intrinsic to Notch expressing cells, suggesting that Notch functions either directly or in parallel with other signalling systems to regulate cellular differentiation events. Protein domains common to all ligands and receptors of this system suggest conserved functional properties that likely relate to regulatory mechanisms for Notch signalling. Within this review, the known functional properties of these domains are analyzed with respect to their contributions to ligand/receptor interactions and Notch signalling.

Serrate-mediated activation of Notch is specifically blocked by the product of the gene fringe in the dorsal compartment of the Drosophila wing imaginal disc.

In the developing imaginal wing disc of Drosophila, cells at the dorsoventral boundary require localized Notch activity for specification of the wing margin. The Notch ligands Serrate and Delta are required on opposite sides of the presumptive wing margin and, even though activated forms of Notch generate responses on both sides of the dorsoventral boundary, each ligand generates a compartment-specific response. In this report we demonstrate that Serrate, which is expressed in the dorsal compartment, does not signal in the dorsal regions due to the action of the fringe gene product. Using ectopic expression, we show that regulation of Serrate by fringe occurs at the level of protein and not Serrate transcription. Furthermore, replacement of the N-terminal region of Serrate with the corresponding region of Delta abolishes the ability of fringe to regulate Serrate without altering Serrate-specific signaling.

A dominant-negative form of Serrate acts as a general antagonist of Notch activation.

Specification of the dorsal-ventral compartment boundary in the developing Drosophila wing disc requires activation of NOTCH from its dorsal ligand SERRATE and its ventral ligand DELTA. Both NOTCH ligands are required in this process and one cannot be substituted for the other. In the wing disc, expression of a dominant-negative, truncated form of SERRATE called BD(G), is capable of inhibiting NOTCH activation in the ventral but not the dorsal compartments. We demonstrate that BD(G) can act as a general antagonist of both SERRATE and DELTA mediated NOTCH interactions, however, BD(G) retains the SERRATE protein domain targeted by FRINGE, hence its antagonistic effects are restricted in the dorsal wing disc. Our findings suggest a model in which ligand binding to NOTCH is a necessary but insufficient step toward NOTCH activation.

Serrate expression can functionally replace Delta activity during neuroblast segregation in the Drosophila embryo.

Serrate and Delta encode structurally related proteins in D. melanogaster that bind within a common extracellular region on the NOTCH receptor molecule. We used ectopic expression to determine if SERRATE could mediate in vivo functions parallel or antagonistic to those proposed for the putative NOTCH ligand DELTA. Our results demonstrate that Serrate can replace Delta gene function during embryonic neuroblast segregation and that expression of Serrate leads to a NOTCH-dependent suppression of achaete expression in proneural clusters. Our findings strongly suggest that SERRATE functions as an alternative ligand capable of NOTCH activation.

The gene Serrate encodes a putative EGF-like transmembrane protein essential for proper ectodermal development in Drosophila melanogaster.

Mutations in the third chromosome gene Serrate are shown to display genetic interactions with specific alleles of the neurogenic locus Notch, which encodes a transmembrane protein with epidermal growth factor (EGF) homology. Embryonic lethal Serrate mutations exhibit epidermal and neuronal defects, which are reminiscent of those produced by mutations in the Drosophila EGF receptor homolog gene. We present the molecular cloning of Serrate and show that it encodes two coordinately expressed transcripts from a genomic interval greater than 30 kb in length. The deduced protein product of 1404 amino acids contains a single transmembrane domain and 14 EGF-like repeats. Thus, Serrate represents another member of the group of EGF-containing loci in Drosophila. Whole-mount in situ hybridization analysis reveals complex temporal and spatial patterns of RNA expression consistent with the epidermal and neuronal defects observed in mutant embryos. Finally, we discuss the implications of Serrate function within the context of other cell-surface molecules known to be involved in the differentiation of ectodermally derived tissues.

The Notch locus and the genetic circuitry involved in early Drosophila neurogenesis.

The genetic and molecular analysis of the Notch locus, which codes for a transmembrane protein sharing homology with the mammalian epidermal growth factor, suggests that the Notch protein is involved in a cell interaction mechanism essential for the differentiation of the embryonic nervous system of Drosophila. Taking advantage of the negative complementation between two Notch mutations that affect the extracellular domain of the protein, we have tried to dissect the genetic circuitry in which Notch is integrated by searching for genes whose products may interact with the Notch protein. This genetic screen has led to the identification of a surprisingly restricted set of interacting loci, including Delta and mastermind. Like Notch, both of these genes belong to a group of loci, the neurogenic loci, which have been previously identified by virtue of their similar mutant phenotype affecting early neurogenesis. We extend these studies by systematically exploring interactions between specific mutations in the Notch molecule and the other neurogenic genes. Furthermore, we show that the molecular lesions of two Notch alleles (nd and nd2), which interact dramatically with mastermind mutations, as well as with a mutation affecting the transducin homologous product of the neurogenic locus Enhancer of split, involve changes in the intracellular domain of the protein.

Specific EGF repeats of Notch mediate interactions with Delta and Serrate: implications for Notch as a multifunctional receptor.

The neurogenic loci Notch and Delta, which both encode EGF-homologous transmembrane proteins, appear to function together in mediating cell-cell communication and have been shown to interact at the cell surface in vitro. To examine the role of the EGF repeats in this interaction, we performed an extensive deletion mutagenesis of the extracellular domain of Notch. We find that of the 36 EGF repeats of Notch, only two, 11 and 12, are both necessary and sufficient to mediate interactions with Delta. Furthermore, this Delta binding ability is conserved in the corresponding two repeats from the Xenopus Notch homolog. We report a novel molecular interaction between Notch and Serrate, another EGF-homologous transmembrane protein containing a region of striking similarity to Delta, and show that the same two EGF repeats of Notch also constitute a Serrate binding domain. These results suggest that Notch may act as a multifunctional receptor whose 36 EGF repeats form a tandem array of discrete ligand-binding units, each of which may potentially interact with several different proteins during development.