Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026

Dissection and Immunostaining of Imaginal Discs from Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: September 20, 2014
The pleiohomeotic functions as a negative regulator of Drosophila even-skipped gene during embryogenesis
Su Na Kim1, Hyun Pyo Shim, Bu-Nam Jeon
1Department of Biology Education, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-748, Korea.
Abstract:
Polycomb group (PcG) proteins maintain the spatial expression patterns of genes that are involved in cell-fate specification along the anterior-posterior (A/P) axis. This repression requires cis-acting silencers, which are called PcG response elements (PREs). One of the PcG proteins, Pleiohomeotic (Pho), which has a zinc finger DNA binding protein, plays a critical role in recruiting other PcG proteins to bind to PREs. In this study, we characterized the effects of a pho mutation on embryonic segmentation. pho maternal mutant embryos showed various segmental defects including pair-rule gene mutant patterns. Our results indicated that engrailed and even-skipped genes were misexpressed in pho mutant embryos, which caused embryonic segment defects.
Related Concept Videos
The Ratio of X Chromosome to Autosomes
Normal male Drosophila has a ratio of one X chromosome to two sets of autosomes. In contrast, normal female Drosophila...
Pleiotropy
Hedgehog Signaling Pathway
Position-effect Variegation
Exon Recombination
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon has three reading...
Master Transcription Regulators

