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Fruit Fly Study Digs Deeper Into Poorly Understood Details of Forming Embryos


December 21, 2010

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Using fruit flies as a model to study embryo formation, scientists report in Nature Cell Biology that molecular breakdown of a protein called Bicoid is vital to normal head-to-tail patterning of the insect's offspring. Published online by the journal Dec. 19, the study shows how Bicoid is targeted for molecular degradation by a newly identified protein the researchers named Fates-shifted (Fsd). Without the interaction between Bicoid and Fsd, fruit fly embryos are improperly formed.Full Story

Source
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

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