Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1994 Oct 25;91(22):10717–10721. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.22.10717

The BTB domain, found primarily in zinc finger proteins, defines an evolutionarily conserved family that includes several developmentally regulated genes in Drosophila.

S Zollman 1, D Godt 1, G G Privé 1, J L Couderc 1, F A Laski 1
PMCID: PMC45093  PMID: 7938017

Abstract

The Drosophila bric à brac protein and the transcriptional regulators encoded by tramtrack and Broad-Complex contain a highly conserved domain of approximately 115 amino acids, which we have called the BTB domain. We have identified six additional Drosophila genes that encode this domain. Five of these genes are developmentally regulated, and one of them appears to be functionally related to bric à brac. The BTB domain defines a gene family with an estimated 40 members in Drosophila. This domain is found primarily at the N terminus of zinc finger proteins and is evolutionarily conserved from Drosophila to mammals.

Full text

PDF
10720

Images in this article

Selected References

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

  1. Brown J. L., Sonoda S., Ueda H., Scott M. P., Wu C. Repression of the Drosophila fushi tarazu (ftz) segmentation gene. EMBO J. 1991 Mar;10(3):665–674. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1991.tb07995.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brown J. L., Wu C. Repression of Drosophila pair-rule segmentation genes by ectopic expression of tramtrack. Development. 1993 Jan;117(1):45–58. doi: 10.1242/dev.117.1.45. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cavener D. R. Comparison of the consensus sequence flanking translational start sites in Drosophila and vertebrates. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Feb 25;15(4):1353–1361. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.4.1353. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chardin P., Courtois G., Mattei M. G., Gisselbrecht S. The KUP gene, located on human chromosome 14, encodes a protein with two distant zinc fingers. Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 Apr 11;19(7):1431–1436. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.7.1431. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chen Z., Brand N. J., Chen A., Chen S. J., Tong J. H., Wang Z. Y., Waxman S., Zelent A. Fusion between a novel Krüppel-like zinc finger gene and the retinoic acid receptor-alpha locus due to a variant t(11;17) translocation associated with acute promyelocytic leukaemia. EMBO J. 1993 Mar;12(3):1161–1167. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1993.tb05757.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Croston G. E., Kerrigan L. A., Lira L. M., Marshak D. R., Kadonaga J. T. Sequence-specific antirepression of histone H1-mediated inhibition of basal RNA polymerase II transcription. Science. 1991 Feb 8;251(4994):643–649. doi: 10.1126/science.1899487. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Devereux J., Haeberli P., Smithies O. A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 1):387–395. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.1part1.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. DiBello P. R., Withers D. A., Bayer C. A., Fristrom J. W., Guild G. M. The Drosophila Broad-Complex encodes a family of related proteins containing zinc fingers. Genetics. 1991 Oct;129(2):385–397. doi: 10.1093/genetics/129.2.385. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Dorn R., Krauss V., Reuter G., Saumweber H. The enhancer of position-effect variegation of Drosophila, E(var)3-93D, codes for a chromatin protein containing a conserved domain common to several transcriptional regulators. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Dec 1;90(23):11376–11380. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.23.11376. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Fauvarque M. O., Dura J. M. polyhomeotic regulatory sequences induce developmental regulator-dependent variegation and targeted P-element insertions in Drosophila. Genes Dev. 1993 Aug;7(8):1508–1520. doi: 10.1101/gad.7.8.1508. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Godt D., Couderc J. L., Cramton S. E., Laski F. A. Pattern formation in the limbs of Drosophila: bric à brac is expressed in both a gradient and a wave-like pattern and is required for specification and proper segmentation of the tarsus. Development. 1993 Nov;119(3):799–812. doi: 10.1242/dev.119.3.799. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Goebel S. J., Johnson G. P., Perkus M. E., Davis S. W., Winslow J. P., Paoletti E. The complete DNA sequence of vaccinia virus. Virology. 1990 Nov;179(1):247-66, 517-63. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(90)90294-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Haller J., Côté S., Brönner G., Jäckle H. Dorsal and neural expression of a tyrosine kinase-related Drosophila gene during embryonic development. Genes Dev. 1987 Oct;1(8):862–867. doi: 10.1101/gad.1.8.862. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Harrison S. D., Travers A. A. The tramtrack gene encodes a Drosophila finger protein that interacts with the ftz transcriptional regulatory region and shows a novel embryonic expression pattern. EMBO J. 1990 Jan;9(1):207–216. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb08097.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kerckaert J. P., Deweindt C., Tilly H., Quief S., Lecocq G., Bastard C. LAZ3, a novel zinc-finger encoding gene, is disrupted by recurring chromosome 3q27 translocations in human lymphomas. Nat Genet. 1993 Sep;5(1):66–70. doi: 10.1038/ng0993-66. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Kornberg R. D., Lorch Y. Chromatin structure and transcription. Annu Rev Cell Biol. 1992;8:563–587. doi: 10.1146/annurev.cb.08.110192.003023. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Massung R. F., Jayarama V., Moyer R. W. DNA sequence analysis of conserved and unique regions of swinepox virus: identification of genetic elements supporting phenotypic observations including a novel G protein-coupled receptor homologue. Virology. 1993 Dec;197(2):511–528. doi: 10.1006/viro.1993.1625. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Numoto M., Niwa O., Kaplan J., Wong K. K., Merrell K., Kamiya K., Yanagihara K., Calame K. Transcriptional repressor ZF5 identifies a new conserved domain in zinc finger proteins. Nucleic Acids Res. 1993 Aug 11;21(16):3767–3775. doi: 10.1093/nar/21.16.3767. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Read D., Manley J. L. Alternatively spliced transcripts of the Drosophila tramtrack gene encode zinc finger proteins with distinct DNA binding specificities. EMBO J. 1992 Mar;11(3):1035–1044. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1992.tb05142.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Santamaria P. Evolution and aggregulates: role of the Polycomb-group genes of Drosophila. C R Acad Sci III. 1993 Oct;316(10):1200–1206. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Soeller W. C., Oh C. E., Kornberg T. B. Isolation of cDNAs encoding the Drosophila GAGA transcription factor. Mol Cell Biol. 1993 Dec;13(12):7961–7970. doi: 10.1128/mcb.13.12.7961. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Upton C., Macen J. L., Wishart D. S., McFadden G. Myxoma virus and malignant rabbit fibroma virus encode a serpin-like protein important for virus virulence. Virology. 1990 Dec;179(2):618–631. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(90)90129-f. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Xiong W. C., Montell C. tramtrack is a transcriptional repressor required for cell fate determination in the Drosophila eye. Genes Dev. 1993 Jun;7(6):1085–1096. doi: 10.1101/gad.7.6.1085. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Xue F., Cooley L. kelch encodes a component of intercellular bridges in Drosophila egg chambers. Cell. 1993 Mar 12;72(5):681–693. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(93)90397-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Ye B. H., Lista F., Lo Coco F., Knowles D. M., Offit K., Chaganti R. S., Dalla-Favera R. Alterations of a zinc finger-encoding gene, BCL-6, in diffuse large-cell lymphoma. Science. 1993 Oct 29;262(5134):747–750. doi: 10.1126/science.8235596. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES