Misexpression of Xsiah-2 induces a small eye phenotype in Xenopus

Recent data demonstrate a structural and functional conservation of factors crucial for the development of the insect and the vertebrate eye. We isolated Xenopus siah-2, a protein with 67% identity to Drosophila sina (seven in absentia) and 85% identity to the mouse and human siah-2 proteins. Sina is required in Drosophila for the R7 photoreceptor cell formation during eye development, because it down regulates proteins that inhibit R7 differentiation via the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway. Nothing is known about the developmental function of the siah protein in vertebrates. We show that in Xenopus siah-2 is expressed maternally and is later restricted to the brain, spinal cord and the developing and mature eye. To demonstrate that the vertebrate factor participates in the process of eye formation we over expressed Xsiah-2 during Xenopus development and observed the formation of a small eye phenotype. The vertebrate counterpart of a C-terminal loss of function sina mutant, that causes a deficiency of the R7 photoreceptor cells in Drosophila, induces in Xenopus also smaller eyes. The small eyes are characterized by a reduced size of the lens, the retina and the pigmented epithelium. As this phenotype has been also described for flies expressing sina ectopically, the data demonstrate the functional and structural conservation of Xsiah-2 and sina in metazoan eye development.