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Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster

BACKGROUND: The Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster harbors several genes required for male fertility. The genes for these fertility factors are very large in size and contain conspicuous amounts of repetitive DNA and transposons. Three of these loci (ks-1, kl-3 and kl-5) have the ability to dev...

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Autores principales: Ceprani, Francesca, Raffa, Grazia D, Petrucci, Romano, Piergentili, Roberto
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2386818/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18405358
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-9-32
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author Ceprani, Francesca
Raffa, Grazia D
Petrucci, Romano
Piergentili, Roberto
author_facet Ceprani, Francesca
Raffa, Grazia D
Petrucci, Romano
Piergentili, Roberto
author_sort Ceprani, Francesca
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster harbors several genes required for male fertility. The genes for these fertility factors are very large in size and contain conspicuous amounts of repetitive DNA and transposons. Three of these loci (ks-1, kl-3 and kl-5) have the ability to develop giant lampbrush-like loops in primary spermatocytes, a cytological manifestation of their active state in these cells. Y-loops bind a number of non-Y encoded proteins, but the mechanisms regulating their development and their specific functions are still to be elucidated. RESULTS: Here we report the results of a screen of 726 male sterile lines to identify novel autosomal genes controlling Y-loop function. We analyzed mutant testis preparations both in vivo and by immunofluorescence using antibodies directed against Y-loop-associated proteins. This screen enabled us to isolate 17 mutations at 15 loci whose wild-type function is required for proper Y-loop morphogenesis. Six of these loci are likely to specifically control loop development, while the others display pleiotropic effects on both loops and meiotic processes such as spermiogenesis, sperm development and maturation. We also determined the map position of the mutations affecting exclusively Y-loop morphology. CONCLUSION: Our cytological screening permitted us to identify novel genetic functions required for male spermatogenesis, some of which show pleiotropic effects. Analysis of these mutations also shows that loop development can be uncoupled from meiosis progression. These data represent a useful framework for the characterization of Y-loop development at a molecular level and for the study of the genetic control of heterochromatin.
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spelling pubmed-23868182008-05-17 Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster Ceprani, Francesca Raffa, Grazia D Petrucci, Romano Piergentili, Roberto BMC Genet Research Article BACKGROUND: The Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster harbors several genes required for male fertility. The genes for these fertility factors are very large in size and contain conspicuous amounts of repetitive DNA and transposons. Three of these loci (ks-1, kl-3 and kl-5) have the ability to develop giant lampbrush-like loops in primary spermatocytes, a cytological manifestation of their active state in these cells. Y-loops bind a number of non-Y encoded proteins, but the mechanisms regulating their development and their specific functions are still to be elucidated. RESULTS: Here we report the results of a screen of 726 male sterile lines to identify novel autosomal genes controlling Y-loop function. We analyzed mutant testis preparations both in vivo and by immunofluorescence using antibodies directed against Y-loop-associated proteins. This screen enabled us to isolate 17 mutations at 15 loci whose wild-type function is required for proper Y-loop morphogenesis. Six of these loci are likely to specifically control loop development, while the others display pleiotropic effects on both loops and meiotic processes such as spermiogenesis, sperm development and maturation. We also determined the map position of the mutations affecting exclusively Y-loop morphology. CONCLUSION: Our cytological screening permitted us to identify novel genetic functions required for male spermatogenesis, some of which show pleiotropic effects. Analysis of these mutations also shows that loop development can be uncoupled from meiosis progression. These data represent a useful framework for the characterization of Y-loop development at a molecular level and for the study of the genetic control of heterochromatin. BioMed Central 2008-04-11 /pmc/articles/PMC2386818/ /pubmed/18405358 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-9-32 Text en Copyright © 2008 Ceprani et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ceprani, Francesca
Raffa, Grazia D
Petrucci, Romano
Piergentili, Roberto
Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster
title Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster
title_full Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster
title_fullStr Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster
title_full_unstemmed Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster
title_short Autosomal mutations affecting Y chromosome loops in Drosophila melanogaster
title_sort autosomal mutations affecting y chromosome loops in drosophila melanogaster
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2386818/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18405358
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-9-32
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