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. 1990 Dec;126(4):949–960. doi: 10.1093/genetics/126.4.949

P Element Regulatory Products Enhance Zeste(1) Repression of a P[white(duplicated)] Transgene in Drosophila Melanogaster

D Coen 1
PMCID: PMC1204291  PMID: 1963871

Abstract

Drosophila P element mobilization is subject to a complex array of regulatory mechanisms. A fruitful approach to study them is the use of insertion mutations whose expression is influenced by P regulation. In the present report, it is shown that P element somatic products may influence the expression of an unrelated gene inserted in a P transposon. The P[w(d1)9.3]19DE transgene carries an in vitro modified white gene harboring a duplication of the 5' regulatory sequences. Expression of this transgene is repressed in a P background. No maternal effect is detected and repression can be relieved as soon as P chromosomes are replaced by M ones. The amplitude of repression is correlated to the P transposase activity of the individuals examined. Repression appears to be exerted by somatic products of complete autonomous P elements or of in vitro modified P elements lacking the capacity to express the fourth P exon. The P repression of P[w(d1)9.3]19DE is strongly dependent on the insertion site of this transgene. This P repression effect occurs only in the presence of the zeste(1) allele and is suppressed by Su(z)2 mutations. No qualitative differences of transcription pattern are observed between white(+) and P[w(d1)9.3]19DE in any backgrounds. P repression acts to reduce the amount of the major white transcript. This suggests that P regulatory products may act through cis-interactions at a distance of over 3 kb.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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