Expression of Drosophila forkhead transcription factors during kidney development

The Drosophila forkhead (Dfkh) family of transcription factors has over 40 family members. One Dfkh family member, BF2 (aka FoxD1), has been shown, by targeted disruption, to be essential for kidney development. In order to determine if other Dfkh family members were involved in kidney development and to search for new members of this family, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed using degenerate primers of the consensus sequence of the DNA binding domain of this family and developing rat kidney RNA. The RT-PCR product was used to probe RNA from a developing rat kidney (neonatal), from a 20-day old kidney, and from an adult kidney. The RT-PCR product hybridized only to a developing kidney RNA transcript of ∼2.3 kb (the size of BF2). A lambda gt10 mouse neonatal kidney library was then screened, using the above-described RT-PCR product as a probe. Three lambda phage clones were isolated that strongly hybridized to the RT-PCR probe. Sequencing of the RT-PCR product and the lambda phage clones isolated from the developing kidney library revealed Dfkh BF2. In summary, only Dfkh family member BF2, which has already been shown to be essential for nephrogenesis, was identified in our screen and no other candidate Dfkh family members were identified.