Ferris P J, Goodenough U W
Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
Genetics. 1997 Jul;146(3):859-69. doi: 10.1093/genetics/146.3.859.
Diploid cells of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that are heterozygous at the mating-type locus (mt+/mt-) differentiate as minus gametes, a phenomenon known as minus dominance. We report the cloning and characterization of a gene that is necessary and sufficient to exert this minus dominance over the plus differentiation program. The gene, called mid, is located in the rearranged (R) domain of the mt- locus, and has duplicated and transposed to an autosome in a laboratory strain. The imp11 mt- mutant, which differentiates as a fusion-incompetent plus gamete, carries a point mutation in mid. Like the fus1 gene in the mt+ locus, mid displays low codon bias compared with other nuclear genes. The mid sequence carries a putative leucine zipper motif, suggesting that it functions as a transcription factor to switch on the minus program and switch off the plus program of gametic differentiation. This is the first sex-determination gene to be characterized in a green organism.
莱茵衣藻的二倍体细胞在交配型位点杂合(mt⁺/mt⁻)时会分化为负配子,这一现象被称为负显性。我们报告了一个基因的克隆和特征分析,该基因对于在正分化程序上施加这种负显性是必要且充分的。这个名为mid的基因位于mt⁻位点的重排(R)区域,并且在一个实验室菌株中已复制并转移到一条常染色体上。imp11 mt⁻突变体分化为无融合能力的正配子,它在mid基因上携带一个点突变。与mt⁺位点的fus1基因一样,与其他核基因相比,mid显示出较低的密码子偏好性。mid序列带有一个假定的亮氨酸拉链基序,这表明它作为转录因子发挥作用,开启配子分化的负程序并关闭正程序。这是在绿色生物中鉴定出的首个性别决定基因。