PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

B N Cheyette

Publications and source records attributed to B N Cheyette.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Homeobox genes and connective tissue patterning.

In vertebrates, limb tendons are derived from cells that migrate from the lateral plate mesoderm during early development. While some of the developmental steps leading to the formation of these tissues are known, little is known about the molecular mechanisms controlling them. We have identified two murine homeobox-containing genes, Six 1 and Six 2, which are expressed in a complementary fashion during the development of limb tendons. Transcripts for both genes are found in different sets of phalangeal tendons. Six 1 and Six 2 also are expressed in skeletal and smooth muscle, respectively. These genes may participate in the patterning of the distal tendons of the limb phalanges by setting positional values along the limb axes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The Drosophila sine oculis locus encodes a homeodomain-containing protein required for the development of the entire visual system.

The transformation of an unpatterned epithelium into a patterned one is a fundamental issue in morphogenesis. This transformation occurs in a dramatic fashion in the developing eye imaginal disc, the primordium of the Drosophila compound eye. Molecular and developmental analyses reveals that the sine oculis (so) locus encodes a homeodomain-containing protein that is expressed and required in the unpatterned epithelium prior to morphogenesis. In mutants, cells undergo apoptosis. These findings argue that so plays an essential role in controlling the initial events of pattern formation in the eye disc. So is also expressed and required for the development of the rest of the fly visual system, including the optic lobes (i.e., those regions of the brain that process visual information). So is expressed in the optic lobe primordium prior to its invagination from the embryonic ectoderm; in so mutants, the optic lobe primordium fails to invaginate.

Alleles↗

The Drosophila anachronism locus: a glycoprotein secreted by glia inhibits neuroblast proliferation.

The Drosophila anachronism (ana) locus controls the proliferation of neuroblasts, neuronal stem cells that give rise to the central nervous system. In ana mutants, quiescent postembryonic central brain and optic lobe neuroblasts enter S phase precociously. ana encodes a novel secreted protein of 474 amino acids that is expressed not in the affected neuroblasts, but rather in a subclass of neighboring glial cells. These studies argue for an important role for glia in negatively regulating proliferation of neuronal precursor cells, thereby controlling the timing of postembryonic neurogenesis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗