Cardiac expression of the Drosophila Sulphonylurea receptor gene is regulated by an intron enhancer dependent upon the NK homeodomain factor Tinman.

Cardiac development proceeds via the activation of a complex network of regulatory factors which both directly and indirectly impact downstream cardiac structural genes. In Drosophila, the NK homeodomain transcription factor Tinman is critical to cardiac specification and development via the activation of a number of key regulatory genes which mediate heart development. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that Tinman also functions in Drosophila to directly activate transcription of the ATP binding cassette gene Sulphonylurea receptor (Sur).