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The Caenorhabditis elegans heterochronic gene lin-14 encodes a nuclear protein that forms a temporal developmental switch

Abstract

During wild-type development, a protein product of the Caenorhabditis elegans heterochronic gene lin-14 is localized to nuclei of specific somatic cells in embryos and early larvae, but is absent in late larvae and adult soma. Gain-of-function lin-14 mutations cause the level of lin-14 protein to remain high throughout development, resulting in developmental reiterations of early cell lineages. The normal down-regulation of the lin-14 nuclear protein level encodes a temporal switch between early and late cell fates.

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Ruvkun, G., Giusto, J. The Caenorhabditis elegans heterochronic gene lin-14 encodes a nuclear protein that forms a temporal developmental switch. Nature 338, 313–319 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/338313a0

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