Drosophila sine oculis and eyes absent genes synergize in compound-eye formation. The murine homologues of these genes, Six and Eya, respectively, show overlapping expression patterns during development. We hypothesized that Six and Eya proteins cooperate to regulate their target genes. Cotransfection assays were performed with various combinations of Six and Eya to assess their effects on a po...

Dysfunction of the ureter often leads to urine flow impairment from the kidney to the bladder, causing dilation of the ureter and/or renal pelvis. Six1 is a crucial regulator of renal development: mutations in human SIX1 cause branchio-oto-renal (BOR) syndrome and Six1(-/-) mice exhibit renal agenesis, although the ureter is present. It remains unclear whether Six1 plays a role in regulating ur...

The molecular basis of mechanosensation, mechanosensory cell development and mechanosensory organ development is reviewed with an emphasis on its evolution. In contrast to eye evolution and development, which apparently modified a genetic program through intercalation of genes between the master control genes on the top (Pax6, Eya1, Six1) of the hierarchy and the structural genes (rhodopsin) at...

Maf is a basic domain/leucine zipper domain protein originally identified as a proto-oncogene whose consensus target site in vitro, the T-MARE, is an extended version of an AP-1 site normally recognized by Fos and Jun. Maf and the closely related family members Neural retina leucine zipper (Nrl), L-Maf, and Krml1/MafB have been implicated in a wide variety of developmental and physiologic roles...

To further elucidate pituitary adrenal interactions during development, we studied the organogenesis of the interrenal organ, the teleost homolog of the mammalian adrenal gland, in zebrafish. To this end we compared wild-type zebrafish interrenal development with that of mutants lacking pituitary cell types including corticotrophs. In addition, we studied the effects of ACTH receptor (Mc2r) kno...