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RNA binding and translational suppression by bicoid

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Abstract

THE anterior determinant bicoid (bcd) of Drosophila is a homeo-domain protein. It forms an anterior-to-posterior gradient in the embryo and activates, in a concentration-dependent manner, several zygotic segmentation genes during blastoderm formation1–4. Its posterior counterpart, the homeodomain transcription factor caudal (cad)5–7, forms a concentration gradient in the opposite direction, emanating from evenly distributed messenger RNA in the egg. In embryos lacking bed activity as a result of mutation, the cad gradient fails to form and cad becomes evenly distributed throughout the embryo8. This suggests that bed may act in the region-specific control of cad mRNA translation. Here we report that bed binds through its homeodomain to cad mRNA in vitro, and exerts translational control through a bed-binding region of cad mRNA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Molekulare Entwicklungsbiologie, Max-Planck-lnstitut für biophysikalische Chemie, Am Fassberg, D-37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Rolando Rivera-Pomar, Dierk Niessing, Urs Schmidt-Ott & Herbert Jacklë

  2. Biozentrum der Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Walter J. Gehring

Authors
  1. Rolando Rivera-Pomar
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  2. Dierk Niessing
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  3. Urs Schmidt-Ott
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  4. Walter J. Gehring
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  5. Herbert Jacklë
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Rivera-Pomar, R., Niessing, D., Schmidt-Ott, U. et al. RNA binding and translational suppression by bicoid. Nature 379, 746–749 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/379746a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/379746a0

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