Dissection of the Drosophila paired protein: functional requirements for conserved motifs

The Drosophila paired gene encodes three conserved motifs: a homeodomain, paired domain and PRD (his/pro) repeat. To investigate the functional importance of the PRD repeat and paired domain, we tested deletion mutants using an ectopic expression assay in embryos. Our results suggest that the PRD repeat is not required for the in vivo regulation of the target genes, engrailed and gooseberry. However, the PRD repeat appears to be embedded within a proline-rich transcriptional activation domain required for the regulation of these genes. Our analysis of the paired domain indicated that its N-terminal half, which is required for DNA binding in vitro, is also required for in vivo function, whereas surprisingly, the C-terminal half is dispensable for the regulation of engrailed and gooseberry.