Determinator--Inhibitor Pairs as a Mechanism for Threshold Setting in Development: A Possible Function for Pseudogenes
Abstract
Thresholds are frequently thought to be involved in the development of discrete structures in response to a shallow, monotonic gradient of morphogenetic information. We propose a mechanism for threshold setting that incorporates two essential components: (i) determinator genes that produce intracellular "determinators" that control cellular differentiation during development and (ii) intracellular "inhibitors" that bind tightly and specifically to the determinators to form "determinator-inhibitor pairs" that are inactive with respect to determinator function. The interaction of these components amplifies the intracellular response to an extra-cellular morphogen, thus producing a sharp transition in determinator gene activity. This system could operate at either the RNA level with the determinator-inhibitor pairs taking the form of sense-antisense RNAs or at the protein level via a competitive inhibition mechanism. In either case this model suggests a possible role for pseudogenes in development as a source of the intracellular inhibitors.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- February 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.83.3.679
- Bibcode:
- 1986PNAS...83..679M