Gene Spätzle
Spätzle or spaetzle (German for a type of noodle) is an evolutionarily-conserved arthropod protein first identified in Drosophila melanogaster.
It plays a role in embryonic development and in the insect innate immune response. The name was coined by the Nobel laureate Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard after the Spätzle noodle-like form of homozygous mutant fly larvae.
| Spätzle (gene) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | |||||||
| Organism | |||||||
| Symbol | spz | ||||||
| UniProt | P48607 | ||||||
| |||||||
| Spätzle | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | |||||||||
| Symbol | Spaetzle | ||||||||
| Pfam | PF16077 | ||||||||
| InterPro | IPR032104 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Structure
Spätzle has a cystine knot structure supported by disulfide bridges, is glycosylated, and naturally forms a homodimer. Multiple forms are produced by alternative splicing. It is produced as a preprotein, and needs to be activated by a serine protease called spätzle-processing enzyme. The signal sequence spz[1-25] is first cleaved, followed by the spz[26-220] fragment, leaving the final spz[221-326] (Spaetzle C-106) part as the mature protein.
Function
Homodimeric spz binds to a dimeric toll receptor in fruit flies and related organisms, thus activating the signaling cascade.
Embryonic development
A ligand of the toll pathway, spz is involved in the formation of the dorso-ventral axis in embryonic development.
References
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