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  • The EMBO Journal (2003) 22, 3635 - 3644
  • doi:10.1093/emboj/cdg345

slalom encodes an adenosine 3'-phosphate 5'-phosphosulfate transporter essential for development in Drosophila

Florian Lüders1, Hiroaki Segawa2, David Stein3, Erica M. Selva4,5, Norbert Perrimon4, Salvatore J. Turco2 and Udo Häcker1

  1. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, BMC B13, Lund University, 22184 Lund, Sweden,
  2. Department of Biochemistry, University of Kentucky Medical Center, 800 Rose Street, Lexington, KY 40536, USA
  3. Section of Cell and Developmental Biology and Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C0930, Austin, TX 78712-0253 USA
  4. Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, HHMI, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02118, USA
  5. Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, 325 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA

Correspondence to:

Udo Häcker, E-mail: udo.haecker@medkem.lu.se

Received 4 April 2003; Accepted 20 May 2003; Revised 14 May 2003

Sulfation of all macromolecules entering the secretory pathway in higher organisms occurs in the Golgi and requires the high-energy sulfate donor adenosine 3'-phosphate 5'-phosphosulfate. Here we report the first molecular identification of a gene that encodes a transmembrane protein required to transport adenosine 3'-phosphate 5'-phosphosulfate from the cytosol into the Golgi lumen. Mutations in this gene, which we call slalom, display defects in Wg and Hh signaling, which are likely due to the lack of sulfation of glycos aminoglycans by the sulfotransferase sulfateless. Analysis of mosaic mutant ovaries shows that sll function is also essential for dorsal–ventral axis determination, suggesting that sll transports the sulfate donor required for sulfotransferase activity of the dorsal–ventral determinant pipe.

  • Keywords:

    • glycosaminoglycan,
    • Hedgehog,
    • Pipe,
    • sulfation,
    • Wingless