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Updated: Mar 13, 2026

Rearing and Double-stranded RNA-mediated Gene Knockdown in the Hide Beetle, Dermestes maculatus
Published on: December 28, 2016
Repression activity of Tailless on h 1 and eve 1 pair-rule stripes
Luiz Paulo Andrioli1, Wesley Silva Dos Santos1, Francisco Dos Santos Aguiar1
1Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, Universidade de São Paulo, R. Arlindo Béttio 1000, Ermelino Matarazzo, 03828-000 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Abstract:
We investigated the hypothesis that several transcriptional repressors are necessary to set the boundaries of anterior pair-rule stripes in Drosophila. Specifically, we tested whether Tailless (Tll) is part of a repression mechanism that correctly sets the anterior boundaries of hairy 1 (h 1) and even-skipped 1 (eve 1) stripes. Single mutant tll embryos displayed subtle deviations from the normal positions of h 1 and eve 1 stripes. Moreover, we observed stronger stripe deviations in embryos lacking both Tll and Sloppy-paired 1 (Slp 1), a common repressor for anterior pair-rule stripes. Using h 1 and eve 1 reporter constructs in the genetic assays, we provided further evidence that interference with normal mechanisms of stripe expression is mediated by Tll repression. Indeed, Tll represses both h 1 and eve 1 reporter stripes when misexpressed. Investigating the expression of other anterior gap genes in different genetic backgrounds and in the misexpression assays strengthened Tll direct repression in the regulation of h 1 and eve 1. Our results are consistent with tll being a newly-identified component of a combinatorial network of repressor genes that control pair-rule stripe formation in the anterior blastoderm of Drosophila.
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