Development 129, 187-196 (2002) 187 Printed in Great Britain © The Company of Biologists Limited 2002 DEV5960 The stem-loop binding protein CDL-1 is required for chromosome condensation, progression of cell death and morphogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans Yuki Kodama1, Joel H. Rothman2, Asako Sugimoto1,3,4,* and Masayuki Yamamoto1 1Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, 113-0032, Japan 2Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA 3PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Kawaguchi, 332-0012, Japan 4Laboratory for Developmental Genomics, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe, 650-0047 Japan *Author for correspondence [e-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] (from April 2002)] Accepted 5 October 2001 SUMMARY Histones play important roles not only in the structural loop structures in the 3′-UTR of C. elegans core histone changes of chromatin but also in regulating gene mRNAs, and the mutant forms of this protein show reduced expression. Expression of histones is partly regulated binding activities. A decrease in the amount of core histone post-transcriptionally by the stem-loop binding protein proteins phenocopied the cdl-1 mutant embryos, suggesting (SLBP)/hairpin binding protein (HBP). We report the that CDL-1 contributes to the proper expression of core developmental function of CDL-1, the C. elegans histone proteins. We propose that loss-of-function of cdl-1 homologue of SLBP/HBP. In the C. elegans cdl-1 mutants, causes aberrant chromatin structure, which affects the cell cell corpses resulting from programmed cell death appear cycle and cell death, as well as transcription of genes later and persist much longer than those in the wild type.