C. elegans Rb, NuRD, and Ras regulate lin-39-mediated cell fusion during vulval fate specification

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摘要：

The tumor suppressor Rb and the NuRD (nucleosome remodeling and histone deacetylation) complex have been implicated in transcriptional repression during cell cycle progression and cell fate specification . The Rb/E2F complex physically interacts with and thus recruits the NuRD complex to actively repress transcription . . Therefore, it has been suggested that they function together in a single complex to repress vulva-specific gene transcription . However, little is known about the in vivo interactions between these class B synMuv genes and their relationships with other pathways in specific cellular processes during vulval development. We show that C. elegans Rb/E2F and NuRD complexes antagonize Ras activity by controlling a lin-39 Hox-mediated cell fusion event that regulates the competence of vulval cells. Interestingly, Rb/E2F and NuRD complexes exhibit very different genetic properties. While the NuRD complex negatively regulates lin-39 Hox activity, likely by downregulating its expression, RB/E2F appears to play dual roles in regulating lin-39: a negative role in controlling its activity and a previously uncharacterized positive role in regulating its expression.

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关键词：

Hox gene lin-39 Caenorhabditis-elegans Histone deacetylase Repress transcription Inductive signal Body region Protein Pathway Binding