In: Stem Cell Reports, 2014, vol. 2, no. 4, p. 547–559
Throughout their journey to forming new individuals, germline stem cells must remain totipotent, particularly by maintaining a specific chromatin structure. However, the place epigenetic factors occupy in this process remains elusive. So far, “sensitization” of chromatin by modulation of histone arrangement and/or content was believed to facilitate transcription-factor-induced germ cell...
|
In: BMC Biology, 2014, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 30
Background: epimorphic regeneration of a missing appendage in fish and urodele amphibians involves the creation of a blastema, a heterogeneous pool of progenitor cells underneath the wound epidermis. Current evidence indicates that the blastema arises by dedifferentiation of stump tissues in the vicinity of the amputation. In response to tissue loss, silenced developmental programs are...
|
In: Aging Cell, 2013, p. –
The evolutionarily conserved nucleosome-remodeling protein Mi2 is involved in transcriptional repression during development in various model systems, plays a role in embryonic patterning and germ line development, and participates in DNA repair and cell cycle progression. It is the catalytic subunit of the nucleosome remodeling and histone deacetylase (NuRD) complex, a key determinant of...
|
In: Development, 2011, vol. 138, no. 4649-4660, p. -
Morphogenesis represents a phase of development during which cell fates are executed. The conserved hox genes are key cell fate determinants during metazoan development, but their role in controlling organ morphogenesis is less understood. Here, we show that the C. elegans hox gene lin-39 regulates epidermal morphogenesis via its novel target, the essential zinc finger protein VAB-23. During the...
|
In: PLoS ONE, 2010, vol. 5, no. 10, p. e13681
Biochemical purifications from mammalian cells and Xenopus oocytes revealed that vertebrate Mi-2 proteins reside in multisubunit NuRD (Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylase) complexes. Since all NuRD subunits are highly conserved in the genomes of C. elegans and Drosophila, it was suggested that NuRD complexes also exist in invertebrates. Recently, a novel dMec complex, composed of dMi-2 and...
|
In: BMC Developmental Biology, 2010, vol. 10, no. 78, p. 78
Background: Hox genes play a central role in axial patterning during animal development. They are clustered in the genome and specify cell fate in sequential domains along the anteroposterior (A-P) body axis in a conserved order that is co-linear with their relative genomic position. In the soil worm Caenorhabditis elegans, this striking rule of co-linearity is broken by the anterior Hox gene...
|
In: Developmental Biology, 2010, vol. 344, no. 2, p. 593-602
In the germ line of the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite, nuclei either proliferate through mitosis or initiate meiosis, finally differentiating as spermatids or oocytes. The production of oocytes requires repression of the fem-3 mRNA by cytoplasmic FBF and nuclear MOG proteins. Here we report the identification of the sex determining gene mog-3 and show that in addition to its role in gamete...
|
In: Developmental Biology, 2007, vol. 206, no. 2, p. 469-479
The fate of the vulval cells in Caenorhabditis elegans is specified, at least in part, through a highly conserved RTK/Ras mediated signaling cascade that negatively regulates the activity of the ETS-like transcription factor LIN-1. The Hox gene lin-39 functions downstream of both, the LIN-3/RTK/Ras pathway and LIN-1 and plays a pivotal role in controlling vulva cell competence and...
|
In: Developmental Biology, 2007, vol. 302, no. 2, p. 661–669
The Notch signaling pathway controls growth, differentiation and patterning in divergent animal phyla; in humans, defective Notch signaling has been implicated in cancer, stroke and neurodegenerative disorders. Despite its developmental and medical significance, little is known about the factors that render cells to become competent for Notch signaling. Here we show that during vulval development...
|
In: Nature, 2003, vol. 426, p. 620
The group of enzymes known as TOR (for 'target of rapamycin') kinases regulates cell growth and proliferation in response to nutrients and hormone-dependent mitogenic signals1, 2. Here we show that TOR deficiency in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans more than doubles its natural lifespan. This new function for TOR signalling in ageing control may represent a link between...
|
