Anterior-posterior axis specification in Drosophila oocytes: identification of novel bicoid and oskar mRNA localization factors.

Anterior-posterior axis specification in Drosophila oocytes: Identification of novel bicoid and oskar mRNA localisation factors

The Drosophila Homolog of C. elegans PAR-1 Organizes the Oocyte Cytoskeleton and Directs oskar mRNA Localization to the Posterior Pole

In C. elegans, the PAR-1 kinase is localized to the posterior of the zygote and is required for anterior-posterior axis formation. Here, we report that a Drosophila PAR-1 homolog localizes to the posterior of the oocyte with oskar mRNA. Furthermore, par-1 mutants show a novel polarity phenotype in which bicoid mRNA accumulates normally at the anterior, but oskar mRNA is redirected to the center...

maelstrom is required for an early step in the establishment of Drosophila oocyte polarity: posterior localization of grk mRNA.

We describe a mutant, maelstrom, that disrupts a previously unobserved step in mRNA localization within the early oocyte, distinct from nurse-cell-to-oocyte RNA transport. Mutations in maelstrom disturb the localization of mRNAs for Gurken (a ligand for the Drosophila Egf receptor), Oskar and Bicoid at the posterior of the developing (stage 3-6) oocyte. maelstrom mutants display phenotypes dete...

Axis formation during Drosophila oogenesis.

Recent advances shed light on the cellular processes that cooperate during oogenesis to produce a fully patterned egg, containing all the maternal information required for embryonic development. Progress has been made in defining the early steps in oocyte specification and it has been shown that progression of oogenesis is controlled by a meiotic checkpoint and requires active maintenance of th...

Posterior Localization of Dynein and Dorsal-Ventral Axis Formation Depend on Kinesin in Drosophila Oocytes

To establish the major body axes, late Drosophila oocytes localize determinants to discrete cortical positions: bicoid mRNA to the anterior cortex, oskar mRNA to the posterior cortex, and gurken mRNA to the margin of the anterior cortex adjacent to the oocyte nucleus (the "anterodorsal corner"). These localizations depend on microtubules that are thought to be organized such that plus end-direc...