Analysis of a Novel Transcription Mode of Fhx/P25 Gene in Bombyx mori / 生物化学与生物物理进展

ABSTRACT

Fhx/P25 in silkworm, Bombyx mori, one of the main components of silk fibroin, is presumed in previous reports to be expressed exclusively in the posterior silk gland (PSG) of the animal with strict territorial and developmental specificities. On the basis of a large-scale analysis ofthe silkworm EST data, it was found that Fhx/P25 gene is transcribed not only in the posterior silk gland, but in the ovary and in other tissues of the larvae at day 3 of the fifth-instar as well and that this gene has distinct transcription start sites (TSSs) in the posterior silk gland and the ovary. The TSS in the ovary is located about 115 bp upstream sequence of that in the posterior silk gland. Subsequent RT-PCR, FQ-PCR and sequencing have verified the validity of this presumption. In addition, alternative splicing is predicted in pre-mRNA of Fhx/P25 gene and confirmed by RT-PCR. In conclusion, Fhx/P25 gene is not a gene with strictly tissue-specific transcription.Complicated regulation mechanisms may exist for its transcription and expression and it may have other functions to perform.