Subject(s)
Bone Marrow Transplantation , Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation , Stem Cells/cytology , Transplantation Conditioning , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic , Cohort Studies , Female , Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation , Humans , Leukemia/therapy , Male , Matched-Pair Analysis , Middle Aged , Multicenter Studies as Topic , Myelodysplastic Syndromes/therapy , Time Factors , Transplantation, Homologous , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
We report the characterization of two novel genes of Drosophila melanogaster, named mst36Fa and mst36Fb. They define a novel gene family, showing identical time and tissue-specificity limited to male germ cells where their transcription starts during meiotic prophase. These two genes encode for two slightly basic proteins highly homologous to each other and fairly rich in leucine and glutamic acid. Although strictly clustered, these genes utilize different promoter regions as revealed by examination of transgenic flies bearing mst36F-promoter-lacZ reporter constructs and by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays. Our data suggest that at least one gene (mst36Fa) of the cluster is under translational repression until spermiogenesis suggesting a putative role in the spermatides differentiation. The present study is aimed at the structural analysis of these genes.
Subject(s)
Drosophila melanogaster/genetics , Gene Expression Profiling , Genes, Insect/genetics , Sex Characteristics , Spermatozoa/metabolism , Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , Base Sequence , Exons/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental , Gene Fusion , Insect Proteins/chemistry , Insect Proteins/genetics , Introns/genetics , Male , Molecular Sequence Data , Multigene Family/genetics , RNA, Messenger/genetics , RNA, Messenger/metabolism , Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid/genetics , Sequence Alignment , Testis/cytology , Transcription, GeneticABSTRACT
The conversion of pyruvoyl-H(4)-pterin to pyrimidodiazepine (PDA), which is an essential step in the biosynthesis of the red components of Drosophila eye pigments known as drosopterins, requires the products of the genes sepia and clot. While the product of sepia has been shown to correspond to the enzyme PDA-synthase, the role of clot remains unknown, although the clot(1) allele was one of the first eye-color mutants to be isolated in Drosophila melanogaster,and much genetic and biochemical data has become available since. Here we report the cloning of the clot gene, describe its molecular organization and characterize the sequence alterations associated with the alleles cl(1) and cl(2). The coding properties of the gene show that it encodes a protein related to the Glutaredoxin class of the Thioredoxin-like enzyme superfamily, conserved members of which are found in human, mouse and plants. We suggest that the Clot protein is an essential component of a glutathione redox system required for the final step in the biosynthetic pathway for drosopterins.
Subject(s)
Drosophila Proteins/genetics , Drosophila melanogaster/genetics , Genes, Insect , Oxidoreductases , Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , Base Sequence , Cloning, Molecular , Conserved Sequence , DNA/genetics , Drosophila Proteins/chemistry , Drosophila Proteins/metabolism , Drosophila melanogaster/growth & development , Drosophila melanogaster/metabolism , Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental , Genetic Complementation Test , Glutaredoxins , Glutathione/metabolism , Humans , Mice , Molecular Sequence Data , Oxidation-Reduction , Protein Structure, Secondary , Proteins/chemistry , Proteins/genetics , Proteins/metabolism , Pteridines/metabolism , Sequence Homology, Amino Acid , Thioredoxins/chemistry , Thioredoxins/genetics , Thioredoxins/metabolismABSTRACT
The D. melanogaster dunce gene is involved in both the learning and memory processes of the fly. The gene encodes for a cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase, a function playing a central role in the regulation of the intracellular cAMP level. Molecular cloning of dunce has so far not been completely achieved, although it is known that the gene encodes a large set of RNAs and has a complex organization, extending for more than 140 kilobases and containing several genes within its introns. Here we report the isolation and the characterization of 21/7, a cDNA clone representative of a novel dunce splicing pattern. The nucleotide sequence of this clone led to the identification of a dunce exon included in at least one transcript so far uncharacterized.
