Disease relevance of lin-11

• In the lateral head ganglion, lin-11 functions in a neural network that regulates thermosensory behavior [1].

High impact information on lin-11

• The arrangement of cysteine residues in this motif, referred to as LIM (for lin-11 isl-1 mec-3), suggests that this region is a metal-binding domain [2].
• Novel cysteine-rich motif and homeodomain in the product of the Caenorhabditis elegans cell lineage gene lin-11 [2].
• Two other LIM homeobox genes, ttx-3 and lin-11, function in the two interneurons AIY and AIZ, respectively [3].
• Other transcription factors (lin-11, cog-1, and egl-38) act in combination to control cell-type-specific gene expression [4].
• We show that alr-1 acts in a pathway with the LIM1 ortholog lin-11 to regulate the development of a subset of chemosensory neurons [5].

Biological context of lin-11

• The lin-11 and mec-3 genes of C. elegans, the Isl-1 gene of mammals and the HO gene of yeast, encode regulatory factors that determine cell type of one daughter after asymmetric cell division [6].
• The CKII beta gene was mapped to a position on C. elegans chromosome 2 that is in close proximity to the lin-11 gene [7].
• Using a conditional RNAi approach, we show that lin-11 regulates vulval morphogenesis [8].
• Ast-1 genetically interacts with other transcription factors controlling neuronal differentiation like lin-11 and zag-1 as well as components of the netrin pathway suggesting that ast-1 might control the expression of components of the netrin signal transduction machinery [9].

Anatomical context of lin-11

• Our results suggest that differential temporal regulation of lin-11, presumably together with its interaction with asymmetrically segregated factors, results in the generation of the distinct AWA and ASG sensory neuron types [10].
• Specifically, lin-11 is expressed in the ventral uterine intermediate precursor (pi) cells and their progeny (the utse and uv1 cells), which connect the uterus to the vulva [11].
• The Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite egg-laying system comprises several tissues, including the uterus and vulva. lin-11 encodes a LIM domain transcription factor needed for certain vulval precursor cells to divide asymmetrically [11].

Associations of lin-11 with chemical compounds

• Putative lin-11 complementary DNAs were sequenced and found to encode a protein that contains both a homeodomain and two tandem copies of a novel cysteine-rich motif: C-X2-C-X17-19-H-X2-C-X2-C-X2-C-X7-11-(C)-X8-C [2].

Other interactions of lin-11

• The lin-11 LIM homeobox gene specifies olfactory and chemosensory neuron fates in C. elegans [10].
• Like (pi) cell induction, the uterine lin-11 expression responds to the uterine anchor cell and the lin-12-encoded receptor [11].
• Three other genes specifically affect pioneer-follower relationships between early and late outgrowing axons, controlling either differentiation of a pioneer neuron (lin-11) or the ability of axons to follow a pioneer (ast-2, unc-130) [12].

References