Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Child and Brain Development Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, Canada.
J Neurogenet. 2021 Sep;35(3):179-191. doi: 10.1080/01677063.2021.1914608. Epub 2021 May 4.
The () gene has been extensively studied in many species for its functions in development, physiology, and behavior. It is common for genes that influence behavior and development to be essential genes, and has been found to be an essential gene in both fruit flies and mammals, with mutants dying before reaching the adult stage. However, the biological process underlying the lethality associated with this gene is not known. Here, we show that in , some but not all gene products of are essential for survival. Specifically, we show that promoter 3 of , but not promoters 1, 2, and 4 are required for survival past pupal stage. We use full and partial genetic deletions of , and temperature-restricted knock-down of the gene to further investigate the stage of lethality. While deletion analysis shows that flies lacking die at the end of pupal development, as pharate adults, temperature-restricted knock-down shows that is only required at the start of pupal development, for normal adult emergence (AE) and viability. We further show that the inability of these mutants to emerge from their pupal cases is linked to deficiencies in emergence behaviors, caused by a possible energy deficiency, and finally, that the lethality of mutants seems to be linked to protein isoform P3, transcribed from promoter 3.
（）基因在许多物种中的功能在发育、生理和行为方面得到了广泛的研究。影响行为和发育的基因通常是必需基因，已经在果蝇和哺乳动物中发现是必需基因，（）突变体在达到成年阶段之前就死亡。然而，与该基因相关的致死性的生物学过程尚不清楚。在这里，我们表明，在（）中，一些但不是所有的基因产物对于生存是必需的。具体来说，我们表明，（）的启动子 3，但不是启动子 1、2 和 4，是在蛹期后生存所必需的。我们使用（）的完全和部分基因缺失以及该基因的温度限制敲低来进一步研究致死阶段。虽然缺失分析表明，缺乏（）的果蝇在蛹发育结束时死亡，作为拟成虫，但温度限制敲低表明，（）仅在蛹发育开始时需要，以进行正常的成虫出现（AE）和存活。我们进一步表明，这些突变体无法从蛹壳中出现与出现行为的缺陷有关，这可能是由于能量不足引起的，最后，（）突变体的致死性似乎与从 3 号启动子转录的蛋白异构体 P3 有关。
