High impact information on grau

• These results demonstrate that activation of cortex transcription by grauzone is necessary for the completion of meiosis in Drosophila oocytes, and establish a new pathway that specifically regulates the female meiotic cell cycle [1].
• Completion of meiosis in Drosophila oocytes requires transcriptional control by grauzone, a new zinc finger protein [1].
• Characterization of grauzone mutations indicates that the phenotype of these embryos is similar to cortex [2].
• Aberrant chromosome segregation at meiosis I was the earliest observable defect, suggesting that grauzone and cortex are first required immediately after egg activation [3].
• This transgene rescued the meiosis arrest of embryos from these mutants and allowed their complete development, indicating that activation of cortex transcription is the primary role of Grauzone during Drosophila oogenesis [4].

Biological context of grau

• Mutations in grauzone or cortex cause abnormal arrest in Drosophila female meiosis [1].
• We cloned grauzone and identified it as a C2H2-type zinc finger transcription factor [1].
• The only function of Grauzone required for Drosophila oocyte meiosis is transcriptional activation of the cortex gene [4].

References