TY - JOUR T1 - Expression Profiling of MAP Kinase–Mediated Meiotic Progression in Caenorhabditis elegans A1 - Leacock, Stefanie W A1 - Reinke, Valerie Y1 - 2006/11/10 N2 - The LET-60 (Ras)/LIN-45 (Raf)/MPK-1 (MAP kinase) signaling pathway plays a key role in the development of multiple tissues in Caenorhabditis elegans. For the most part, the identities of the downstream genes that act as the ultimate effectors of MPK-1 signaling have remained elusive. A unique allele of mpk-1, ga111, displays a reversible, temperature-sensitive, tissue-specific defect in progression through meiotic prophase I. We performed gene expression profiling on mpk-1(ga111) animals to identify candidate downstream effectors of MPK-1 signaling in the germ line. This analysis delineated a cohort of genes whose expression requires MPK-1 signaling in germ cells in the pachytene stage of meiosis I. RNA in situ hybridization analysis shows that these genes are expressed in the germ line in an MPK-1-dependent manner and have a spatial expression pattern consistent with the location of activated MPK-1. We found that one MPK-1 signaling-responsive gene encoding a C2H2 zinc finger protein plays a role in meiotic chromosome segregation downstream of MPK-1. Additionally, discovery of genes responsive to MPK-1 signaling permitted us to order MPK-1 signaling relative to several events occurring in pachytene, including EFL-1/DPL-1 gene regulation and X chromosome reactivation. This study highlights the utility of applying global gene expression methods to investigate genes downstream of commonly used signaling pathways in vivo. JF - PLOS Genetics JA - PLOS Genetics VL - 2 IS - 11 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.0020174 SP - e174 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0020174 ER -