Analysis of maternal effect mutant combinations elucidates regulation and function of the overlap of hunchback and Krüppel gene expression in the Drosophila blastoderm embryo

The metameric organisation of the Drosophila embryo is generated early during development, due to the action of maternal effect and zygotic segmentation and homeotic genes. The gap genes participate in the complex process of pattern formation by providing a link between the maternal and the zygotic gene activities. Under the influence of maternal gene products they become expressed in distinct domains along the anteroposterior axis of the embryo; negative interactions between neighboring gap genes are thought to be involved in establishing the expression domains. The gap gene activities in turn are required for the correct patterning of the pair-rule genes; little is known, however, about the underlying mechanisms. We have monitored the distribution of gap and pair-rule genes in wild-type embryos and in embryos in which the anteroposterior body pattern is greatly simplified due to combinations of maternal effect mutations (staufen exuperantia, vasa exuperantia, vasa exuperantia, bicoid oskar, bicoid oskar torsolike, vasa torso exuperantia). We show that the domains of protein distribution of the gap genes hunchback and Krüppel overlap in wild-type embryos. Based on the analysis of the maternal mutant combinations, we suggest an explanation of how this overlap is generated. Furthermore, our data show that different constellations of gap gene activities provide different input for the pair-rule genes, and thus strongly suggest that the overlap of hunchback and Krüppel in wild-type is functional in the formation of the patterns of pair-rule genes.