Deng W M, Zhao D, Rothwell K, Bownes M
Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Mol Hum Reprod. 1997 Oct;3(10):853-62. doi: 10.1093/molehr/3.10.853.
We report the analysis of a number of lines of Drosophila melanogaster containing insertions of the yeast gal4 gene. By crossing a UAS-lacZ fusion gene as a reporter into these lines, we analysed the expression patterns of beta-galactosidase during oogenesis. Since there is no expression of GAL4 in the germ-line in these experiments, this is an ideal system for the analysis of expression patterns in sub-sets of follicle cells. These lines provide ideal markers for sets of follicle cells, e.g. anterior or posterior polar cells for studying genetic interactions in oogenesis; however, they can also be used in the same way as conventional enhancer traps to clone nearby genes with similar expression patterns. The advantages of this dual gal4/UAS system over conventional enhancer trapping includes the possibility of GAL4-directed misexpression and antisense expression studies to establish the function of the genes we identified during follicle cell determination and differentiation. These studies could lead to the isolation of homologous genes crucial in mammalian oogenesis. Understanding how the somatic cells and germ cells interact to promote growth and maturation of the mammalian follicle and oocyte could well be crucial for improving the fertility of eggs used for in-vitro fertilization programmes, and could provide methods for assessing the quality of eggs.
我们报告了对若干含有酵母gal4基因插入片段的黑腹果蝇品系的分析。通过将一个UAS-lacZ融合基因作为报告基因与这些品系进行杂交，我们分析了β-半乳糖苷酶在卵子发生过程中的表达模式。由于在这些实验中生殖系中没有GAL4的表达，这是分析卵泡细胞亚群中表达模式的理想系统。这些品系为卵泡细胞群体提供了理想的标记，例如用于研究卵子发生过程中遗传相互作用的前极细胞或后极细胞；然而，它们也可以以与传统增强子捕获相同的方式用于克隆具有相似表达模式的附近基因。这种双gal4/UAS系统相对于传统增强子捕获的优势包括进行GAL4指导的错误表达和反义表达研究的可能性，以确定我们在卵泡细胞决定和分化过程中鉴定的基因的功能。这些研究可能会导致分离出在哺乳动物卵子发生中至关重要的同源基因。了解体细胞和生殖细胞如何相互作用以促进哺乳动物卵泡和卵母细胞的生长和成熟，对于提高用于体外受精程序的卵子的生育能力可能至关重要，并可能提供评估卵子质量的方法。
