Xu A, Park S-K, D'Mello S, Kim E, Wang Q, Pikielny C W
Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/UMDNJ, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway NJ 08854, USA.
Cell Tissue Res. 2002 Mar;307(3):381-92. doi: 10.1007/s00441-002-0524-0. Epub 2002 Feb 23.
Detection of courtship-activating female pheromones by contact chemoreceptors on the front legs of male Drosophila melanogaster is thought to play an important role in triggering courtship behavior. However, the chemosensory organs, cells, and molecules responsible are not known. We have isolated two genes, CheA29a and CheB42a, expressed in nonneuronal auxiliary cells within two nested subsets of chemosensory sensilla on the front legs of sexually mature, adult males. The proteins encoded by the CheA29a and CheB42a genes have no sequence similarity to each other or any other known protein, but they belong to two novel families of proteins encoded by the D. melanogaster genome. Members of the two families are predicted to have a single transmembrane domain at their amino terminus, probably to serve as a signal peptide, suggesting that they are soluble and secreted. Finally, in addition to CheA29a and CheB42a, other genes within each family are expressed preferentially in appendages where chemosensory organs are concentrated, in several cases in a male-specific manner. Our data suggest that CheA29a and CheB42a and other members of these two protein families are involved in male-specific chemical senses, perhaps pheromone response.
人们认为，雄性黑腹果蝇前腿上的接触化学感受器检测到求偶激活雌性信息素在触发求偶行为中起重要作用。然而，负责的化学感应器官、细胞和分子尚不清楚。我们分离出了两个基因，CheA29a和CheB42a，它们在性成熟成年雄性前腿上化学感应刚毛的两个嵌套子集中的非神经元辅助细胞中表达。CheA29a和CheB42a基因编码的蛋白质彼此之间以及与任何其他已知蛋白质均无序列相似性，但它们属于黑腹果蝇基因组编码的两个新的蛋白质家族。这两个家族的成员预计在其氨基末端有一个单一的跨膜结构域，可能作为信号肽，表明它们是可溶且可分泌的。最后，除了CheA29a和CheB42a之外，每个家族中的其他基因在化学感应器官集中的附属物中优先表达，在某些情况下是以雄性特异性方式表达。我们的数据表明，CheA29a和CheB42a以及这两个蛋白质家族的其他成员参与雄性特异性化学感应，可能是信息素反应。
