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The Drosophila Homolog Of The Mammalian Imprint Regulator, Ctcf, Maintains The Maternal Genomic Imprint In Drosophila Melanogaster, William A. Macdonald, Debashish Menon, Nicholas J. Bartlett, G Elizabeth Sperry, Vanya Rasheva, Victoria Meller, Vett K. Lloyd

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

CTCF is a versatile zinc finger DNA-binding protein that functions as a highly conserved epigenetic transcriptional regulator. CTCF is known to act as a chromosomal insulator, bind promoter regions, and facilitate long-range chromatin interactions. In mammals, CTCF is active in the regulatory regions of some genes that exhibit genomic imprinting, acting as insulator on only one parental allele to facilitate parent-specific expression. In Drosophila, CTCF acts as a chromatin insulator and is thought to be actively involved in the global organization of the genome.

Results

To determine whether CTCF regulates imprinting in Drosophila, we generated CTCF mutant alleles …

Functional Analysis Of B And C Class Floral Organ Genes In Spinach Demonstrates Their Role In Sexual Dimorphism, D Noah Sather, Maja Jovanovic, Edward M. Golenberg

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

Evolution of unisexual flowers entails one of the most extreme changes in plant development. Cultivated spinach, Spinacia oleracea L., is uniquely suited for the study of unisexual flower development as it is dioecious and it achieves unisexually by the absence of organ development, rather than by organ abortion or suppression. Male staminate flowers lack fourth whorl primordia and female pistillate flowers lack third whorl primordia. Based on theoretical considerations, early inflorescence or floral organ identity genes would likely be directly involved in sex-determination in those species in which organ initiation rather than organ maturation is regulated. In this …