Fol. Biol. 2007, 53, 85-96
Supplementary Nuclear Receptor NHR-60 is Required for Normal Embryonic and Early Larval Development of Caenorhabditis elegans
The C. elegans genome encodes an unexpectedly large number of NHRs, the majority of which are classified as supplementary nuclear receptors (supnrs) that are likely to have evolved from an ancestral protein related to vertebrate HNF-4. To understand the need for this large repertoire of potential ligand-activated transcription factors, we have begun to study an 18-member subgroup defined by DNA binding domain relatedness. Here we report on NHR-60, a supnr expressed ubiquitously throughout development with a distinct pattern of localization on the nuclear periphery. Both antibody staining and GFP reporter genes demonstrated high-level expression and accumulation of NHR-60 in seam cell nuclei that is dependent on NHR-23 activity. Interference with NHR-60 activity, by either RNAi or overexpression of a putative dominant negative isoform, results in embryonic and early larval lethality, including defects in seam cell development. This adds NHR-60 to the list of C. elegans NHRs playing important roles in development.
Keywords
Caenorhabditis elegans, nuclear hormone receptor, development, NHR-23.
Funding
K.Š., E. B., J. V., M. P., Z. K. and M. K. were supported by Grant 301/05/0859 awarded by the Czech Science Foundation and by Grant 0021620806 from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. This research was supported (in part) by the intramural Research Program of the NIH, NIDDK. M. K. and Z. K. are associates of the Clinical Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD.
References
Copyright
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.