Disease relevance of sd

• Partial purification of the Synechocystis sp. protein yielded an enzyme of the expected molecular mass and an N-terminal amino acid sequence that was at least 50% pure, with a specific activity towards 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene of 11 micromol.min(-1).mg(-1) [1].
• We have further investigated and functionally characterized representative gene products from Escherichia coli, Synechocystis sp., Arabidopsis thaliana and Drosophila melanogaster, and the fish liver enzyme, purified from pike (Esox lucius) [1].

High impact information on sd

• Scalloped (Sd) and Vestigial (Vg) are each needed for Drosophila wing development [2].
• In vitro, Vg binds directly to both Sd and its human homolog, Transcription Enhancer Factor-1 [2].
• The interaction domains map to a small region of Vg that is essential for Vg-mediated gene activation and to the carboxy-terminal half of Sd [2].
• An sd enhancer trap strain expresses the reporter gene in a subset of neuroblasts in the central nervous system and in the peripheral sense organs of the embryo [3].
• These observations indicate that the sd gene encodes a transcription factor that functions in the regulation of cell-specific gene expression during Drosophila development, particularly in the differentiation of the nervous system [3].

Biological context of sd

• Further, targeted expression of wg at the D/V boundary in the wing disc was able to partially rescue the sd mutant phenotype [4].
• The reporter gene is later expressed in specific regions of the imaginal discs, including regions of the wing disc destined to become structures defective in viable sd mutants [3].
• Here we show that Vg contains two distinct transcriptional activation domains, suggesting that the function of Vg is to mediate transcriptional activation by Sd [5].

Anatomical context of sd

• Another functional role for sd is the establishment of sensory organ precursors (SOP) of the peripheral nervous system at the wing margin [4].

Other interactions of sd

• We show that vg and scalloped (sd), the only known VG transcriptional coactivator, are coexpressed during IFM development [6].
• This infers that sd could function in either the maintenance or induction of wg at the D/V border [4].

References