Neuro-ICT Laboratory, Kobe Frontier Research Center, Advanced ICT Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe, Japan.
Neuro-ICT Laboratory, Kobe Frontier Research Center, Advanced ICT Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe, Japan.
Gene Expr Patterns. 2022 Mar;43:119232. doi: 10.1016/j.gep.2022.119232. Epub 2022 Feb 4.
The fruitless gene of Drosophila produces multiple protein isoforms, which are classified into two major classes, sex-specific Fru proteins (FruM) and non-sex specific proteins (FruCOM). Whereas FruM proteins are expressed in ∼2000 neurons to masculinize their structure and function, little is known about FruCOM's roles. As an attempt to obtain clues to the roles of FruCOM, we compared expression patterns of FruCOM and FruM in the central nervous system at the late larval stage. We found that nearly all neuroblasts express FruCOM but not FruM, whereas a subset of ganglion mother cells and differentiated neurons express FruM but not FruCOM. It is inferred that FruCOM proteins support fundamental stem cell functions, contrasting to FruM proteins, which play major roles in sex-specific differentiation of neurons.
果蝇的无果基因产生多种蛋白同工型，这些蛋白同工型分为两类：性别特异性 Fru 蛋白（FruM）和非性别特异性蛋白（FruCOM）。虽然 FruM 蛋白在约 2000 个神经元中表达，使它们的结构和功能雄性化，但关于 FruCOM 的作用知之甚少。作为获得 FruCOM 作用线索的尝试，我们比较了晚期幼虫期中枢神经系统中 FruCOM 和 FruM 的表达模式。我们发现几乎所有的神经母细胞都表达 FruCOM 但不表达 FruM，而一小部分神经母细胞和分化神经元表达 FruM 但不表达 FruCOM。可以推断，FruCOM 蛋白支持基本的干细胞功能，与 FruM 蛋白形成对比，后者在神经元的性别特异性分化中起主要作用。
