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- Title
Fork head controls the timing and tissue selectivity of steroid-induced developmental cell death.
- Authors
Cao, Chike; Liu, Yanling; Lehmann, Michael
- Abstract
Cell death during Drosophila melanogaster metamorphosis is controlled by the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). Elements of the signaling pathway that triggers death are known, but it is not known why some tissues, and not others, die in response to a particular hormone pulse. We found that loss of the tissue-specific transcription factor Fork head (Fkh) is both required and sufficient to specify a death response to 20E in the larval salivary glands. Loss of fkh itself is a steroid-controlled event that is mediated by the 20E-induced BR-C gene, and that renders the key death regulators hid and reaper hormone responsive. These results implicate the D. melanogaster FOXA orthologue Fkh with a novel function as a competence factor for steroid-controlled cell death. They explain how a specific tissue is singled out for death, and why this tissue survives earlier hormone pulses. More generally, they suggest that cell identity factors like Fkh play a pivotal role in the normal control of developmental cell death.
- Publication
The Journal of cell biology, 2007, Vol 176, Issue 6, p843
- ISSN
0021-9525
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1083/jcb.200611155