pha-4 is Ce-fkh-1, a fork head/HNF-3alpha,beta,gamma homolog that functions in organogenesis of the C. elegans pharynx.

The C. elegans Ce-fkh-1 gene has been cloned on the basis of its sequence similarity to the winged-helix DNA binding domain of the Drosophila fork head and mammalian HNF-3alpha,beta,gamma genes, and mutations in the zygotically active pha-4 gene have been shown to block formation of the pharynx (and rectum) at an early stage in embryogenesis. In the present paper, we show that Ce-fkh-1 and pha-4 are the same gene. We show that PHA-4 protein is present in nuclei of essentially all pharyngeal cells, of all five cell types. PHA-4 protein first appears close to the point at which a cell lineage will produce only pharyngeal cells, independently of cell type. We show that PHA-4 binds directly to a 'pan-pharyngeal enhancer element' previously identified in the promoter of the pharyngeal myosin myo-2 gene; in transgenic embryos, ectopic PHA-4 activates ectopic myo-2 expression. We also show that ectopic PHA-4 can activate ectopic expression of the ceh-22 gene, a pharyngeal-specific NK-2-type homeodomain protein previously shown to bind a muscle-specific enhancer near the PHA-4 binding site in the myo-2 promoter. We propose that it is the combination of pha-4 and regulatory molecules such as ceh-22 that produces the specific gene expression patterns during pharynx development. Overall, pha-4 can be described as an 'organ identity factor', completely necessary for organ formation, present in all cells of the organ from the earliest stages, capable of integrating upstream developmental pathways (in this case, the two distinct pathways that produce the anterior and posterior pharynx) and participating directly in the transcriptional regulation of organ specific genes. Finally, we note that the distribution of PHA-4 protein in C. elegans embryos is remarkably similar to the distribution of the fork head protein in Drosophila embryos: high levels in the foregut/pharynx and hindgut/rectum; low levels in the gut proper. Moreover, we show that pha-4 expression in the C. elegans gut is regulated by elt-2, a C. elegans gut-specific GATA-factor and possible homolog of the Drosophila gene serpent, which influences fork head expression in the fly gut. Overall, our results provide evidence for a highly conserved pathway regulating formation of the digestive tract in all (triploblastic) metazoa.

Modulation of gene expression in the embryonic digestive tract of C. elegans.

The Caenorhabditis elegans digestive tract is composed of four distinct modules derived from separate cell lineages: anterior pharynx from the ABa lineage, posterior pharynx from the MS lineage, gut from the E lineage, and rectum from the ABp lineage. The C. elegans gut esterase gene (ges-1) is normally expressed in the embryonic gut or E lineage. However, expression ges-1 can be switched into cells of the embryonic pharynx and tail by virtue of deleting a tandem pair of WGATAR sites in the ges-1 promoter. Here, we use both laser ablation experiments and genetic analysis to show that cells expressing the WGATAR-deleted ges-1 transgene belong to all three nongut lineages of the digestive tract: ABa, MS, and ABp. We also show that the molecular size and spatial distribution of ges-1 mRNA transcripts produced by either the WGATAR-deleted ges-1 transgene or the undeleted ges-1 control transgene appear correctly regulated, suggesting that the spatial switch in ges-1 expression occurs at the level of transcription initiation. We further show that both the WGATAR-deleted and the undeleted ges-1 transgenes respond appropriately to mutations in a series of maternal effect genes (skn-1, mex-1, pie-1, and pop-1) that alter early blastomere fate. Moreover, the pharynx/tail expression of the WGATAR-deleted ges-1 transgene is abolished by mutations in the zygotic gene pha-4. Finally, we use imprecise transposon excision to produce two independent C. elegans strains with 1- to 2-kb deletions that remove the tandem WGATAR sites from the promoter of the endogenous chromosomal ges-1 gene: in both of these strains, ges-1 is not expressed in the embryonic gut but is expressed in cells of the embryonic pharynx; pharynx expression is weak but incontrovertible. Overall, our results validate previous transgenic analysis of ges-1 control and show further that ges-1 appears to be regulated in a system-specific, rather than a lineage-specific, manner. The multiple facets of ges-1 expression provide an opportunity to investigate how a multicomponent organ system such as the digestive tract is established from diverse cell lineages.

A fork head/HNF-3 homolog expressed in the pharynx and intestine of the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo.

We have cloned a member of the fork head/HNF-3 family of transcription factors from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Within the predicted DNA binding domain, this gene, called Ce-fkh-1, is 75-78% identical to the Drosophila fork head and rat liver HNF-3 alpha, beta, and gamma genes. Ce-fkh-1 mRNA is highly enriched in embryos. The Ce-fkh-1 gene produces three major transcripts: the longest mRNA retains its original 5'-end but two shorter mRNAs are trans-spliced at the beginning of exons 2 and 3, respectively. In situ hybridization and transgenic Ce-fkh-1::lacZ reporter constructs indicate that the Ce-fkh-1 gene is expressed in both pharynx and intestine of the embryo, beginning at the midproliferation stage. A second phase of Ce-fkh-1 expression occurs in cells of the larval somatic gonad. The pharynx-gut expression of Ce-fkh-1 in the C. elegans embryo is compared with expression of fork head throughout the gut of Drosophila embryos and with expression of HNF-3 (alpha beta gamma) in the endoderm of mammalian embryos. Such conserved patterns of gene expression point to universal features of gastrulation and of digestive tract formation.

DNA-protein interactions in the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo: oocyte and embryonic factors that bind to the promoter of the gut-specific ges-1 gene.

We describe an experimental system in which to investigate DNA-protein interactions in the early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. A homogeneous population of developmentally blocked mid-proliferation stage embryos can be produced by exposure to the deoxynucleotide analog fluorodeoxyuridine. These blocked embryos remain viable for days and express a number of biochemical markers of early differentiation, for example, gut granules, the gut esterase ges-1, and two regulatory genes, mab-5 and hlh-1. Using the techniques of gel mobility shift and DNase I footprinting, we show that nuclear extracts prepared from these embryos contain factors that bind to the 5'-promoter sequences of the C. elegans gut-specific ges-1 gene. In particular, we examine a putative gut "activator" region, which was previously identified by deletion-transformation analysis and which contains two copies of a consensus GATA-factor binding sequence. Factors that bind to double-stranded oligonucleotides containing the ges-1 GATA sequences are present predominantly in nuclear extracts of embryos but are found neither in cytoplasmic nor in nuclear extracts of unfertilized oocytes. Two proteins, of 43 and 60 kDa, can be uv-crosslinked to double-stranded oligonucleotides containing the ges-1 GATA sequences. The sizes of these proteins correspond to the sizes expected for the elt-1 protein and for the skn-1 protein, two regulatory factors present in early C. elegans embryos and possible candidates for ges-1 control. However, we show that homozygous deficiency embryos (mDf7/mDf7 embryos and eDf19/eDf19 embryos, both of which lack the elt-1 gene, and nDf41/nDf41 embryos, which have no skn-1 gene), still express the ges-1 esterase. We conclude that neither the elt-1 gene nor the skn-1 gene is necessary zygotically for ges-1 expression. We suggest that neither the elt-1 protein nor the skn-1 protein interacts directly with the ges-1 gene and that the observed binding proteins must correspond to products of other genes. More generally, the present experimental system should allow the biochemical study of any gene expressed during early C. elegans embryogenesis.

Resolution of sequencing ambiguities: a universal FokI adapter permits Maxam-Gilbert re-sequencing of single-stranded phagemid DNA.

We propose a method to resolve ambiguities encountered when single-stranded (ss) phagemid DNA templates are sequenced by the dideoxy method. A single oligodeoxyribonucleotide (oligo) is synthesized with the following features: (i) the 20 nucleotides (nt) at the 5'-end form a double-stranded hairpin containing a FokI restriction site, exactly as previously described by Podhajska and Szybalski [Gene 40 (1985) 175-182]; (ii) the 23 nt at the 3'-end hybridize to the (+)strand of ss phagemid DNA in the region complementary to the M13 universal sequencing primer. In a simple one-tube set of reactions, ss phagemid DNA is annealed to this oligo, cleaved by FokI at a unique site outside the vector multiple cloning site and then labelled at this unique site by Klenow polymerase and [alpha-32P]dCTP. These reactions provide a convenient route by which Maxam-Gilbert chemical degradation sequencing methods can be used to resolve ambiguities encountered in the dideoxy-sequencing of a unidirectional deletion series already prepared in popular phagemid vectors. A single oligo allows labelling of all members of a deletion series. A second universal oligo allows the same set of reactions to be applied to inserts cloned into (-)strand phagemids.