Abstract
The sister biastomeres ABp and ABa are equipotent at the beginning of the 4-cell stage in C. elegans embryos, but soon become committed to different fates. We show that the glp-1 gene, a homolog of the Notch gene of Drosophila, functions in two distinct cell-cell interactions that specify the ABp and ABa fates. These interactions both require maternal expression of glp-1. We show that a second maternal gene, apx-1, functions with glp-1 only in the specification of the ABp fate and that apx-1 can encode a protein homologous to the Delta protein of Drosophila. Our results suggest how interactions mediated by glp-1 and apx-1 contribute to the establishment of the dorsal-ventral axis in the early C. elegans embryo.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 95-106 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Cell |
Volume | 77 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 8 1994 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cell Biology
- Molecular Biology