High impact information on dib

• Unlike dib and sad, shd is not expressed in the ring gland but is expressed in peripheral tissues such as the epidermis, midgut, Malpighian tubules, and fat body, i.e., tissues known to be major sites of E20MO activity in a variety of insects [1].
• The present data show that the wild-type genes of two members of the Halloween family of embryonic lethals, disembodied (dib) and shadow (sad), code for mitochondrial cytochromes P450 that mediate the last two hydroxylation reactions in the ecdysteroidogenic pathway in Drosophila, namely the C22- and C2-hydroxylases [2].
• The expression of sad and dib is concentrated within the individual segments of the developing epidermis when there is a surge of ecdysteroid midway through embryogenesis [2].
• The Drosophila disembodied gene controls late embryonic morphogenesis and codes for a cytochrome P450 enzyme that regulates embryonic ecdysone levels [3].
• In addition, we find that dib mutant embryos have very low titers of ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and fail to express IMP-E1 and L1, two 20E-inducible genes, in certain tissues of the embryo [3].

Biological context of dib

• From these data, we conclude that dib and spo likely code for essential components in the ecdysone biosynthetic pathway and that ecdysteroids regulate many late embryonic morphogenetic processes such as cell movement and cuticle deposition [3].

Other interactions of dib

• In this report, we show that the disembodied (dib) locus of Drosophila codes for a P450-like sequence [3].
• In a genetic screen we have identified mutations in disembodied, rippchen, spook, shade, shadow, shroud and tramtrack that all share a number of phenotypic traits, including defects in cuticle differentiation and nervous system development [4].
• The ecdysteroidogenic P450 Cyp302a1/disembodied from the silkworm, Bombyx mori, is transcriptionally regulated by prothoracicotropic hormone [5].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of dib

• In situ hybridization studies reveal that dib is expressed in a complex pattern in the early embryo, which eventually gives way to restricted expression in the prothoracic portion of the ring gland [3].

References