The mechanism of sex-specific splicing at the doublesex gene is different between Drosophila melanogaster and Bombyx mori |
| |
Authors: | Suzuki M G Ohbayashi F Mita K Shimada T |
| |
Affiliation: | a Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi 1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan b Genome Research Group, National Institute of Radiological Science, Anagawa 4-9-1, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan |
| |
Abstract: | We have previously reported that Bmdsx, a homologue of the sex-determining gene, doublesex (dsx), was found to be sex-specifically expressed in various tissues at larval, pupal, and adult stages in the silkworm, Bombyx mori, and was alternatively spliced to yield male- and female-specific mRNAs. To reveal sex-specific differences in splicing patterns of Bmdsx pre-mRNA, the genomic sequence was determined and compared with male- and female-specific Bmdsx cDNA sequences. The open reading frame (ORF) consisted of five exons. Exons 3 and 4 were specifically incorporated into the female type of Bmdsx mRNA. On the other hand, exon 2 was spliced to exon 5 to produce the male type mRNA of Bmdsx. As in the case of Drosophila dsx, the OD2 domain was separated by a female-specific intron into sex-independent and sex-dependent regions. Sex-specific splicing occurred in equivalent positions in the Drosophila dsx gene. However, unlike Drosophila dsx, the female-specific introns showed no weak 3′ splice sites, and the TRA/TRA-2 binding site related sequences were not found in the female-specific exon, nor even in any other regions of the Bmdsx gene. Moreover, an in vitro splicing reaction consisting of HeLa cell nuclear extracts showed that the female-type of Bmdsx mRNA represented the default splicing. These findings suggest that the structural features of the sex-specific splicing patterns of Bmdsx pre-mRNA are similar to those of Drosophila dsx but the regulation of sex-specific alternative splicing of Bmdsx pre-mRNA is different. |
| |
Keywords: | doublesex Sex determination Sex-specific splicing Alternative splicing Bombyx mori In vitro splicing |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|