Stage-specific phosphorylation of the fushi tarazu protein during Drosophila development

The regulatory protein encoded by the fushi tarazu (ftz) gene is expressed during three different stages of Drosophila embryogenesis in three different developing tissues. Previously, we demonstrated that ftz protein ectopically expressed throughout developing embryos under the control of an hsp70 heat shock promoter is heavily modified. Here we show that these negatively charged isoforms of the protein are the result of phosphorylation at as many as 16 sites. Phosphate groups could be removed in vitro by treatment with various phosphatases and could be added in vivo by incubating embryo-derived cells or nuclei in the presence of [32P]-orthophosphate. Phosphoamino acid analysis of immunoprecipitated ftz protein yielded both phosphoserines and phosphothreonines at a ratio of approximately 1:1. Interestingly we find that the endogenous ftz protein is also phosphorylated at multiple sites and that different subsets of the phosphoisoforms occur during different stages of development.