Journal
EMBO JOURNAL
Volume 22, Issue 3, Pages 580-587Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/emboj/cdg070
Keywords
embryonic diapause; hypoxia; nitric oxide; transcription; translation
Categories
Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [GM 37193, R01 GM037193, R01 GM060988, GM 60988, R37 GM037193] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Oxygen plays a key role in energy metabolism. However, there are organisms that survive severe shortfalls in oxygen. Drosophila embryos rapidly arrest development upon severe hypoxia and recover upon restoration of oxygen, even days later. Stabilization of the normally unstable engrailed RNA and protein preserved the localized striped pattern of this embryonic patterning gene during 3 days in hypoxia. Severe hypoxia blocked expression of a heat-shock-inducible lacZ transgene. Cyanide, a metabolic poison, did not immediately block gene expression or turnover, arguing against a passive response to energy limitation. In contrast, nitric oxide, a putative hypoxia signal, induced a reversible arrest of development, gene expression and turnover. Reciprocally, a nitric oxide scavenger allowed continued gene expression and turnover during hypoxia, but it reduced hypoxia tolerance. We suggest that hypoxia-induced stasis preserves the status quo of embryonic processes and promotes survival. Our data implicate nitric oxide as a mediator of this response and provide a system in which to investigate its action.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available