TY - JOUR
T1 - Regulation of cell fate in Caenorhabditis elegans by a novel cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein
AU - Jin, Suk Won
AU - Kimble, Judith
AU - Ellis, Ronald E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Marv Wickens and Cameron Luitjens for sharing unpublished results and for comments on the manuscript. We thank members of the C. elegans Genome Sequencing Consortium, for determining the genomic sequence of fog-1, and LaDeana Hillier for her help in computer analysis of the fog-1 sequence. We also thank the CGC for providing some of the strains used in this work and Andy Fire for vectors. R.E.E. and S.-W.J. were supported by American Cancer Society Grant RPG-97-172-01-DDC. J.K. is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. R.E.E. was also supported by postdoctoral fellowships from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, the American Cancer Society, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as by awards from the Munn Endowment of the University of Michigan’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Rackham Grant and Fellowship Program, and the Michigan Memorial–Phoenix Project.
PY - 2001/1/15
Y1 - 2001/1/15
N2 - The fog-1 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans specifies that germ cells differentiate as sperm rather than as oocytes. We cloned fog-1 through a combination of transformation rescue experiments, RNA-mediated inactivation, and mutant analyses. Our results show that fog-1 produces two transcripts, both of which are found in germ cells but not in the soma. Furthermore, two deletion mutants alter these transcripts and are likely to eliminate fog-1 activity. The larger transcript is expressed under the control of sex-determination genes, is necessary for fog-1 activity, and is sufficient to rescue a fog-1 mutant. This transcript encodes a novel member of the CPEB family of RNA-binding proteins. Because CPEB proteins in Xenopus and Drosophila regulate gene expression at the level of translation, we propose that FOG-1 controls germ cell fates by regulating the translation of specific messenger RNAs.
AB - The fog-1 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans specifies that germ cells differentiate as sperm rather than as oocytes. We cloned fog-1 through a combination of transformation rescue experiments, RNA-mediated inactivation, and mutant analyses. Our results show that fog-1 produces two transcripts, both of which are found in germ cells but not in the soma. Furthermore, two deletion mutants alter these transcripts and are likely to eliminate fog-1 activity. The larger transcript is expressed under the control of sex-determination genes, is necessary for fog-1 activity, and is sufficient to rescue a fog-1 mutant. This transcript encodes a novel member of the CPEB family of RNA-binding proteins. Because CPEB proteins in Xenopus and Drosophila regulate gene expression at the level of translation, we propose that FOG-1 controls germ cell fates by regulating the translation of specific messenger RNAs.
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U2 - 10.1006/dbio.2000.9993
DO - 10.1006/dbio.2000.9993
M3 - Article
C2 - 11150246
AN - SCOPUS:0035862804
SN - 0012-1606
VL - 229
SP - 537
EP - 553
JO - Developmental Biology
JF - Developmental Biology
IS - 2
ER -