The Drosophila erect wing gene, which is important for both neuronal and muscle development, encodes a protein which is similar to the sea urchin P3A2 DNA binding protein.

Abstract

The erect wing (ewg) locus ofDrosophila melanogaster encodes a vital function important for the development of the nervous system and the indirect flight muscles. In In recent years, many genes that participate in the formation of the nervous system have been identified in Drosophila melanogaster by genetic or molecular methods. It is reasonable to suggest that certain genes are important for the differentiation of all neurons, whereas others will be important for the enormous microheterogeneity found in the nervous system. Among the former category of genes, one expects to find genes that regulate common aspects of neuronal differentiation at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels (41) and those encoding other specialized components (12,33,45,48,50). We have been studying genes expressed in all neurons, as some are likely to play key roles in neuronal differentiation.Mutations of the D. melanogaster erect wing (ewg) locus exhibit both neural and muscle phenotypes; these include breaks in the central nervous system (CNS) commissures and longitudinal tracts and aberrant intersegmental axonal projection pathways in the embryo, aberrant giant fiber position in the adult fly (11), missing or reduced indirect flight muscles associated with erect wing posture (10), and adult hypoactivity (15). Certain ewg mutations cause embryonic lethality; however, genetic mosaic analysis has shown previously that the ewg function is not required for the viability of all cell types (17). Current evidence strongly suggests that the vital embryonic ewg function is necessary for proper neuronal development, as ewg transcripts are limited to, and distributed ubiquitously throughout, the developing nervous system of the 6-to 12-h embryos (16).The pattern of transcription from ewg is complex, with several overlapping transcripts that show temporal regulation during development (16). The neural expression of ewg transcripts, the pleiotropy of phenotypes associated with * Corresponding author. t Present address:

Loss of Flight and Associated Neuronal Rhythmicity in Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptor Mutants ofDrosophila

“…In all cases, the responses obtained were indistinguishable from wild type (data not shown). The observed changes in wing posture and flight thus arise from specific defect(s), which could be an alteration in indirect flight muscle function in turn caused by developmental and/or physiological changes (Fleming et al, 1989;DeSimone and White, 1993). The physiological changes could lie in the muscle or in any part of a neural circuit for flight.…”

Structure and Regulated Expression of the δ-Aminolevulinate Synthase Gene from Drosophila melanogaster

“…NRF1 is probably involved in a coordinated response of genes encoding key components of energy metabolism (29, 57), including ALAS (28). Genetic and molecular analyses in Drosophila have demonstrated that erect wing plays an important role in the development of muscle and the nervous system (58,59), two tissues with a very high energetic requirement that demand high mitochondrial activity and therefore require elevated synthesis of respiratory pigments.…”

Erect Wing facilitates context-dependent Wnt/Wingless signaling by recruiting the cell-specific Armadillo-TCF adaptor Earthbound to chromatin

“…Previous studies have revealed that Ewg is important for embryonic neuronal development and adult flight muscle formation (DeSimone and White, 1993). However, in ewg mutant embryos, we detect no defects in RP2 motor neuron specification or migration, two well-characterized processes that are dependent on Wingless signaling (Chu-LaGraff and Doe, 1993;Bhat, 2007) (supplementary material Fig.…”

“…Both Ewg and Ebd1 are expressed predominantly in muscles and in the nervous system (DeSimone and White, 1993;DeSimone et al, 1996;Koushika et al, 2000;Benchabane et al, 2011). To determine whether Ebd1 and Ewg are expressed in the same subset of cells during different developmental stages, we performed immunostaining experiments using Ebd1 and Ewg antisera in embryos, larvae and pupae.…”

“…Together, these observations suggested that, like NRF1, Ewg might also associate with specific chromatin sites. To test this hypothesis in vivo, we took advantage of the presence of endogenous Ewg expression in third instar larval salivary glands (DeSimone and White, 1993), and analyzed the giant salivary gland polyploid chromosomes, which are produced by endoreplication and consist of ~500 closely aligned copies of each homolog that display a highly characteristic chromatin banding pattern. To determine whether Ewg associates with chromatin and, if so, to assess the distribution of Ewg on chromatin sites throughout the genome, we performed immunostaining experiments on squashed polytene chromosomes using Ewg antiserum.…”