High impact information on lin-29

• The heterochronic genes lin-4, lin-14, lin-28, and lin-29 control the timing of specific postembryonic developmental events in C. elegans [1].
• Our results further suggest that dauer larva morphogenesis by hypodermal cells requires that lin-28 acts to inhibit lin-29 during early larval stages [2].
• However, lin-29 function is not strictly limited to the lateral hypodermis [3].
• We demonstrate through analysis of genetic mosaics that lin-29 is absolutely required in a small subset of lateral hypodermal seam cells, adjacent to the vulva, for wild-type vulva formation and egg laying [3].
• Finally, vulval morphogenesis and egg laying requires lin-29 activity within the EMS lineage, a lineage that does not generate hypodermal cells [3].

Biological context of lin-29

• We show that lin-29 encodes a protein with five zinc fingers of the (Cys)2-(His)2 class and thus likely controls these processes by regulating transcription in a stage-specific manner [4].
• This terminal differentiation event involves cell cycle exit, cell fusion and the differential regulation of genes expressed in the larval versus adult hypodermis. lin-29 is the most downstream gene in the developmental timing pathway and thus it is the most direct known regulator of these diverse processes [4].
• These findings indicate that the heterochronic gene pathway regulates the timing of hypodermal cell terminal differentiation by regulating larval- and adult-specific gene expression, perhaps by the direct action of lin-29 [5].
• CONCLUSIONS: The lin-29 gene controls gene expression in the epidermal seam cells, uterus and vulva, and may help to coordinate the terminal development of these three tissues by regulating the timing of late gene expression during organogenesis [6].
• Molecular cloning of lin-29, a heterochronic gene required for the differentiation of hypodermal cells and the cessation of molting in C.elegans [7].

Other interactions of lin-29

• We report that a stage-specific developmental program, dauer larva formation, is temporally regulated by four heterochronic genes, lin-4, lin-14, lin-28, and lin-29 [2].
• In the uterus, lin-29 functioned upstream of lin-12 in the induction of pi cells and was necessary to maintain expression in the AC of lag-2, which encodes a ligand for LIN-12 [6].

References