| Affiliation: | (1) UCMP, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden;(2) Department of Pharmacology, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA;(3) Department of Zoology, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland |
| Abstract: | So far, two thioredoxin proteins, DHD and Trx-2, have been biochemically characterized in Drosophila melanogaster. Here, with the cloning and characterization of TrxT we describe an additional thioredoxin with testis-specific expression. TrxT and dhd are arranged as a gene pair, transcribed in opposite directions and sharing a 471 bp regulatory region. We show that this regulatory region is sufficient for correct expression of the two genes. This gene pair makes a good model for unraveling how closely spaced promoters are differentially regulated by a short common control region. Both TrxT and DHD proteins are localized within the nuclei in testes and ovaries, respectively. Use of a transgenic construct expressing TrxT fused to Enhanced Yellow Fluorescent Protein reveals a clear association of TrxT with the Y chromosome lampbrush loops ks-1 and kl-5 in primary spermatocytes. The association is lost in the absence of the Y chromosome. Our results suggest that nuclear thioredoxins may have regulatory functions in the germline.Sequence data from this paper have been deposited with the EMBL/GenBank Data Libraries under Accession number AJ507731 |
