Transcriptional cross-regulation of Irre Cell Recognition Module (IRM) members in the Drosophila pupal retina

Publication date: Available online 18 July 2018Source: Mechanisms of DevelopmentAuthor(s): Maiaro Cabral Rosa Machado, Felipe Berti Valer, Carlos Antonio Couto Lima, Ricardo Guelerman Pinheiro RamosAbstractCell adhesion molecules play a central role in morphogenesis, as they mediate the complex range of interactions between different cell types that result in their arrangement in multicellular organs and tissues. How their coordinated dynamic expression in space and time - an essential requirement for their function - is regulated at the genomic and transcriptional levels constitutes an important, albeit still little understood question. The Irre Cell Recognition Module (IRM) is a highly conserved phylogenetically group of structurally related single pass transmembrane glycoproteins belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily that in Drosophila melanogaster are encoded by the genes roughest (rst), kin-of-irre (kirre), sticks-and-stones (sns) and hibris (hbs). Their cooperative and often partly redundant action are crucial to major developmental processes such axonal pathfinding, myoblast fusion and patterning of the pupal retina. In this latter system rst and kirre display a tightly regulated complementary transcriptional pattern so that lowering rst mRNA levels leads to a concomitant increase in kirre mRNA concentration. Here we investigated whether other IRM components are similarly co-regulated and the extent changes in their mRNA levels affect each other as well as their ...

Source: Mechanisms of Development - July 18, 2018 Category: Biology Source Type: research