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The sevenless signalling cassette mediates Drosophila EGF receptor function during epidermal development
1Zoologisches Institut, Universität Zürich, Switzerland.
Development (Cambridge, England)
|March 1, 1994
Summary
Drosophila
Area of Science:
- Cellular signaling pathways
- Developmental biology
- Molecular genetics
Background:
- Signaling from receptor tyrosine kinases like sevenless and torso in Drosophila involves Drk, Sos, Ras1, raf, and rolled/MAP kinase.
- Previous studies suggested a linear pathway, but integration of different signals by these components remained unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the roles of Drk, Sos, Ras1, raf, and rolled/MAP kinase in Drosophila epidermal development.
- To determine if these components function in a single pathway or integrate distinct signals.
Main Methods:
- Generating clones of homozygous mutant cells in a heterozygous Drosophila background.
- Analyzing the resulting phenotypes during adult epidermal development.
Main Results:
- Mutations in each signaling component produced highly similar phenotypes.
- These phenotypes mimicked those observed in loss-of-function mutations of the Drosophila EGF receptor homolog (DER).
Conclusions:
- The studied components (Drk, Sos, Ras1, raf, rolled/MAP kinase) form a signaling cassette for DER.
- This cassette mediates all aspects of DER signaling in epidermal development.
- These components are not essential for other epidermal signaling processes.