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A new gene in Drosophila melanogaster, Ravus, the phantom of the modifier of position-effect variegation Su(var)3-7 |
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Published in | International Journal of Developmental Biology. 2002, vol. 46, no. 1, p. 167-171 | |
Abstract | In a search for homologues of the dominant modifier of position-effect variegation Su(var)3-7, we have identified one ORF in Drosophila melanogaster. The 359 amino acid deduced protein is much shorter than the 1169 amino acid protein Su(var)3-7. Surprisingly, the two genes are very close to each other at 87E on the polytene chromosome map, and are transcribed divergently. The triplet coding for the N-terminus amino acid of the new gene lies only 368 base pairs from the start of transcription of Su(var)3-7. This opposite orientation of the homologue has led us to name it Ravus. The N-terminus of the Ravus protein contains only one of the seven unusual zinc fingers of Su(var)3-7. A second region of similarity encodes an acidic domain. Finally, there is a block of high similarity near the C-terminus of the two proteins. It corresponds to a new conserved protein domain, BESS, found also in the BEAF and Stonewall Drosophila proteins. We have constructed a tagged Ravus protein, and have expressed it as a heat-shock inducible transgene. Ravus associates in vivo with polytene chromosomes but, in contrast to the heterochromatin-associated protein Su(var)3-7, does not show specificity for the chromocenter. Ravus does not seem either to modify the genomic silencing of position-effect variegation, as over-expression of the transgene does not affect the variegated phenotype of a number of rearrangements tested. | |
Keywords | Amino Acid Sequence — Animals — Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone/biosynthesis/genetics — DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics — Drosophila Proteins/biosynthesis/genetics — Drosophila melanogaster/genetics — Expressed Sequence Tags — Heterochromatin/chemistry — Models, Genetic — Molecular Sequence Data — Mutation — Open Reading Frames — Phenotype — Sequence Homology, Amino Acid — Transgenes | |
Identifiers | PMID: 11902679 | |
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Citation (ISO format) | DELATTRE, Marion et al. A new gene in Drosophila melanogaster, Ravus, the phantom of the modifier of position-effect variegation Su(var)3-7. In: International Journal of Developmental Biology, 2002, vol. 46, n° 1, p. 167-171. https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:9881 |