Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on March 17, 2006.

Genetics, Vol. 173, 793-808, June 2006, Copyright © 2006
doi:10.1534/genetics.106.056762

Characterization of Drosophila mini-me, a Gene Required for Cell Proliferation and Survival

Chonnettia Jones^*, Rita Reifegerste^*, and Kevin Moses^*,,1

^* Department of Cell Biology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, Evotec Neurosciences GmbH, Hamburg, Germany and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia 20147

¹ Corresponding author: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, 19710 Janelia Farm Blvd., Ashburn, VA 20147.
E-mail: mosesk{at}hhmi.org

In the developing Drosophila eye, the morphogenetic furrow is a developmental organizing center for patterning and cell proliferation. The furrow acts both to limit eye size and to coordinate the number of cells to the number of facets. Here we report the molecular and functional characterization of Drosophila mini-me (mnm), a potential regulator of cell proliferation and survival in the developing eye. We first identified mnm as a dominant modifier of hedgehog loss-of-function in the developing eye. We report that mnm encodes a conserved protein with zinc knuckle and RING finger domains. We show that mnm is dispensable for patterning of the eye disc, but required in the eye for normal cell proliferation and survival. We also show that mnm null mutant cells exhibit altered cell cycle profiles and contain excess nucleic acid. Moreover, mnm overexpression can induce cells to proliferate and incorporate BrdU. Thus, our data implicate mnm as a regulator of mitotic progression during the proliferative phase of eye development, possibly through the control of nucleic acid metabolism.

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