gli, a zinc finger transcription factor and oncogene, is expressed during normal mouse development

The oncogene GLI is amplified and expressed in some cases of human malignant glioma and undifferentiated childhood sarcoma and is the prototype for a gene family characterized by a highly conserved set of five tandem zinc fingers and a consensus cysteine-histidine link. This zinc finger motif has been shown to bind DNA with sequence specificity and may mediate transcriptional regulation. Since GLI is expressed in embryonal carcinoma cell lines but not in most normal adult tissues and shows significant sequence similarity within its zinc finger domain to cubitus interruptus dominant (ciD), a Drosophila segmentation gene known to be important in the morphogenesis of the posterior portion of each larval segment, we established the temporal and tissue expression patterns of the mouse homologue of human GLI in day 10 through 18 mouse embryos with Northern blotting, reverse transcriptase coupled PCR, and in situ hybridization. gli transcripts were demonstrated on days 10 through 18 of mouse embryonic development as well as in normal adult uterus, brain, testis, and limb. Tissue expression of gli during gestation was demonstrated in Meckel's precartilage mesenchyme, the basis occipitus, rib mesenchymal condensations, primordial vertebral bodies, digital mesenchymal condensations in forefoot and hindfoot plates, the ependymal layer of the spinal cord, and the mesoderm of the gastrointestinal tract. Expression persisted throughout gestation in developing bone and cartilage of the extremities, the ribs, and the vertebral bodies, as well as the gastrointestinal tract mesoderm. These findings support a role for gli family genes in normal craniofacial and digital development in mammals first suggested by the demonstration of translocation breakpoints within the GLI3 gene in families with the Greig cephalopolysyndactylyl syndrome and subsequently by reduced gli3 expression in the mouse mutant extra toes. It is surprising that a single gene would be expressed in such a wide range of mesenchymal structures.