Transcriptional control of Drosophila fushi tarazu zebra stripe expression

The Drosophila segmentation gene fushi tarazu (ftz) is expressed in a characteristic pattern of seven stripes during early embryogenesis. We have used ftz-lacZ fusion genes to determine the effects of deleting relatively small segments of the ftz promoter region necessary for this expression. We find that this regulatory region contains multiple activator and repressor elements. The deletion of one particular activator element results in a preferential loss of expression in the posterior stripes, whereas the deletion of other activator elements causes a general reduction in expression throughout the germ band. The removal of repressor elements results in a loss of repression in the odd-numbered parasegments. We also find that the ftz upstream enhancer element functions primarily in epidermal cells. Our results indicate that ftz transcription is activated in each parasegment through the 'zebra stripe' promoter region and is then inhibited selectively in the odd-numbered parasegments by repressors that bind directly to elements within this promoter region.