Université de Fribourg

The C. elegans Hox gene ceh-13 regulates cell migration and fusion in a non-colinear way. Implications for the early evolution of Hox clusters

Tihanyi, Borbála ; Vellai, Tibor ; Regős, Ágnes ; Ari, Eszter ; Müller, Fritz ; Takács-Vellai, Krisztina

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...

Université de Fribourg

Transcriptional control of Notch signaling by a HOX and a PBX/EXD protein during vulval development in C. elegans

Takács-Vellai, Krisztina ; Vellai, Tibor ; Chen, Estella B. ; Zhang, Yue ; Guerry, Frédéric ; Stern, Michael J. ; Müller, Fritz

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...

Université de Fribourg

Influence of TOR kinase on lifespan in C. elegans

Vellai, Tibor ; Takacs-Vellai, Krisztina ; Zhang, Yue ; Kovacs, Attila L. ; Orosz, László ; Müller, Fritz

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...

Université de Fribourg

The Caenorhabditis elegans ortholog of C21orf80, a potential new protein O-fucosyltransferase, is required for normal development

Menzel, Olivier ; Vellai, Tibor ; Takacs-Vellai, Krisztina ; Reymond, Alexandre ; Müller, Fritz ; Antonarakis, Stylianos E. ; Guipponi, Michel

In: Genomics, 2004, vol. 84, p. 320-330

Down syndrome (DS), as a phenotypic result of trisomy 21, is the most frequent aneuploidy at birth and the most common known genetic cause of mental retardation. DS is also characterized by other phenotypes affecting many organs, including brain, muscle, heart, limbs, gastrointestinal tract, skeleton, and blood. Any of the human chromosome 21 (Hsa21) genes may contribute to some of the DS...