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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1990 Aug;87(16):6281–6285. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.16.6281

Drosophila homolog of the mammalian jun oncogene is expressed during embryonic development and activates transcription in mammalian cells.

K Zhang 1, J R Chaillet 1, L A Perkins 1, T D Halazonetis 1, N Perrimon 1
PMCID: PMC54517  PMID: 1696724

Abstract

By means of low-stringency cross-species hybridization to Southern DNA blots, human c-jun sequences were used to identify a unique Drosophila melanogaster locus (Djun). The predicted DJun protein is highly homologous to members of the mammalian Jun family in both the DNA binding and leucine zipper regions. Djun was mapped by in situ hybridization to position 46E of the second chromosome. It encodes a 1.7-kilobase transcript constitutively expressed at all developmental stages. Functionally, Djun in cooperation with mouse c-fos can trans-activate activator protein 1 DNA binding site when introduced into mammalian cells. Taken together, these data suggest that Djun, much like its mammalian homolog, may activate transcription of genes involved in regulation of cell growth, differentiation, and development. Furthermore, the identification of Djun allows one to exploit the genetics of Drosophila to identify genes in signal transduction pathways involving Djun and thus c-jun.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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