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  • The EMBO Journal (1998) 17, 6846 - 6853
  • doi:10.1093/emboj/17.23.6846

The relative expression amounts of apterous and its co-factor dLdb/Chip are critical for dorso-ventral compartmentalization in the Drosophila wing

Pedro Fernández-Fúnez2,3, Cheng-Hsin Lu1,3, Diego E. Rincón-Limas1, Antonio García-Bellido2 and Juan Botas1

  1. Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA
  2. Centro de Biología Molecular/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, Madrid 28049, Spain
  3. P.Fernández-Fúnez and C.-H.Lu contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to:

Juan Botas, E-mail: jbotas@bcm.tmc.edu

Received 5 August 1998; Accepted 7 October 1998; Revised 7 October 1998

Dorso-ventral axis formation in the Drosophila wing requires the localized accumulation of the Apterous LIM/homeodomain protein (Ap) in dorsal cells. Here we report that dLdb/Chip encodes a LIM-binding cofactor that controls Ap activity. Both lack and excess of dLdb/Chip function cause the same phenotype as apterous (ap) lack of function; i.e. dorsal to ventral transformations, generation of new wing margins, and wing outgrowths. These results indicate that the normal function of Ap in dorso-ventral compartmentalization requires the correct amount of the DLDB/CHIP co-factor, and suggest that the Ap and DLDB/CHIP proteins form a multimeric functional complex. In support of this model, we show that the dLdb/Chip excess-of-function phenotypes can be rescued by ap overexpression.

  • Keywords:

    • apterous,
    • co-factor,
    • compartment,
    • LDB,
    • LIM domain