Wj. Wolfgang et M. Forte, POSTERIOR LOCALIZATION OF THE DROSOPHILA GI-ALPHA PROTEIN DURING EARLY EMBRYOGENESIS REQUIRES A SUBSET OF THE POSTERIOR GROUP GENES, The International journal of developmental biology, 39(4), 1995, pp. 581-586
Shortly after fertilization in Drosophila embryos, the G-protein alpha
subunit. Gi alpha. undergoes a dramatic redistribution. Initially gra
nules containing Gi alpha are present throughout the embryonic cortex
but during nuclear cleavage they become concentrated at the posterior
pole and are lost by the blastoderm stage. Mutations that eliminate an
terior structures bicoid, swallow, and exuperantia did not prevent the
posterior accumulation of Gi alpha. Likewise, embryos from mothers wi
th dominant gain of function mutations in the Bicaudal D gene show nor
mal polarization of Gi alpha granules. By contrast, a subset of mutati
ons which eliminate posterior structures, cappuccino, spire, staufen,
mago nashi, valois, and oskar, prevented the posterior accumulation of
G alpha. It is important to note that mutations in posterior genes lo
wer in the putative hierarchy vasa, tudor nanos, and pumilio did not a
ffect Gi alpha redistribution. From these results we conclude that Gi
alpha redistribution to the posterior pole depends on maternal factors
involved in the localization of the posterior morphogen nanos.