A C. elegans mediator protein confers regulatory selectivity on lineage-specific expression of a transcription factor gene
Abstract
The Caenorhabditis elegans caudal homolog, pal-1, is required for neurogenesis in the male tail. We show that expression ofpal-1 in the postembryonic neuroblast cell V6 can be initiated by two alternate pathways. One pathway, acting in wild type, requires a regulatory element in the fifth pal-1 intron. The other pathway, independent of this element, is normally repressed by the newly identified gene sop-1, which encodes a homolog of the mammalian Mediator complex protein TRAP230. In sop-1 mutants,pal-1 is activated by a pathway that is stimulated bybar-1/β-catenin, a component of the Wnt signal transduction pathway. The results support a physiological role of the Mediator complex in conveying regulatory signals to the transcriptional apparatus.
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Footnotes
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↵1 Corresponding author.
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E-MAIL emmons{at}aecom.yu.edu; FAX (718) 430-8778.
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Article and publication are atwww.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.814700.
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- Received May 3, 2000.
- Accepted June 29, 2000.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press