Isolation and characterization of the prune locus of Drosophila melanogaster.

Autor: Teng DH; Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403., Bender LB, Engele CM, Tsubota S, Venkatesh T
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Genetics [Genetics] 1991 Jun; Vol. 128 (2), pp. 373-80.
DOI: 10.1093/genetics/128.2.373
Abstrakt: The complementary lethal interaction between the prune (pn) and Killer of prune loci of Drosophila melanogaster is an unusual and highly specific phenomenon. A lesion in pn results in a brownish-purple color of the compound eyes, while the conditional dominant Killer of prune mutation exhibits no phenotype by itself. However, a hemizygous or homozygous pn mutant carrying a copy of the Killer of prune gene dies during the late second to third instar stage of larval development. As a step toward understanding the molecular nature of this lethality and the role of pn in pigment biosynthesis, we have cloned the pn locus by using a transposon tag in the P element-induced allele, pn38. In addition, seven independent revertant lines were generated by the remobilization of transposons in pn38. The pn gene is located in a region that is transcriptionally active, and the isolated cDNAs that correspond to this area fall into three transcription units: I, II and III. Southern analysis shows that the restriction fragment length polymorphisms in five pn alleles are localized within a 1.2-kilobase genomic fragment, of which only transcription unit II is a part. The cDNA of this unit recognizes 1.65- and 1.8-kilobase messages in wild-type Drosophila adult head and body tissues that are absent or extremely reduced in pn mutants. Taken together, the results suggest that transcription unit II defines a part of the pn locus and its cDNA encodes a putative structural gene of pn.
Databáze: MEDLINE