Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding

The white gene, which is responsible for eye pigmentation, is widely used to study position effects in Drosophila. As a result of insertion of P-element vectors containing mini-white without enhancers into random chromosomal sites, flies with different eye color phenotypes appear, which is usually e...

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Autores principales: Silicheva, Margarita, Golovnin, Anton, Pomerantseva, Ekaterina, Parshikov, Aleksander, Georgiev, Pavel, Maksimenko, Oksana
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2010
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Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2800232/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19854952
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkp877
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author Silicheva, Margarita
Golovnin, Anton
Pomerantseva, Ekaterina
Parshikov, Aleksander
Georgiev, Pavel
Maksimenko, Oksana
author_facet Silicheva, Margarita
Golovnin, Anton
Pomerantseva, Ekaterina
Parshikov, Aleksander
Georgiev, Pavel
Maksimenko, Oksana
author_sort Silicheva, Margarita
collection PubMed
description The white gene, which is responsible for eye pigmentation, is widely used to study position effects in Drosophila. As a result of insertion of P-element vectors containing mini-white without enhancers into random chromosomal sites, flies with different eye color phenotypes appear, which is usually explained by the influence of positive/negative regulatory elements located around the insertion site. We found that, in more than 70% of cases when mini-white expression was subject to positive position effects, deletion of the white promoter had no effect on eye pigmentation; in these cases, the transposon was inserted into the transcribed regions of genes. Therefore, transcription through the mini-white gene could be responsible for high levels of its expression in most of chromosomal sites. Consistently with this conclusion, transcriptional terminators proved to be efficient in protecting mini-white expression from positive position effects. On the other hand, the best characterized Drosophila gypsy insulator was poorly effective in terminating transcription and, as a consequence, only partially protected mini-white expression from these effects. Thus, to ensure maximum protection of a transgene from position effects, a perfect boundary/insulator element should combine three activities: to block enhancers, to provide a barrier between active and repressed chromatin, and to terminate transcription.
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spelling pubmed-28002322009-12-31 Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding Silicheva, Margarita Golovnin, Anton Pomerantseva, Ekaterina Parshikov, Aleksander Georgiev, Pavel Maksimenko, Oksana Nucleic Acids Res Gene Regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics The white gene, which is responsible for eye pigmentation, is widely used to study position effects in Drosophila. As a result of insertion of P-element vectors containing mini-white without enhancers into random chromosomal sites, flies with different eye color phenotypes appear, which is usually explained by the influence of positive/negative regulatory elements located around the insertion site. We found that, in more than 70% of cases when mini-white expression was subject to positive position effects, deletion of the white promoter had no effect on eye pigmentation; in these cases, the transposon was inserted into the transcribed regions of genes. Therefore, transcription through the mini-white gene could be responsible for high levels of its expression in most of chromosomal sites. Consistently with this conclusion, transcriptional terminators proved to be efficient in protecting mini-white expression from positive position effects. On the other hand, the best characterized Drosophila gypsy insulator was poorly effective in terminating transcription and, as a consequence, only partially protected mini-white expression from these effects. Thus, to ensure maximum protection of a transgene from position effects, a perfect boundary/insulator element should combine three activities: to block enhancers, to provide a barrier between active and repressed chromatin, and to terminate transcription. Oxford University Press 2010-01 2009-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC2800232/ /pubmed/19854952 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkp877 Text en © The Author(s) 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Gene Regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics
Silicheva, Margarita
Golovnin, Anton
Pomerantseva, Ekaterina
Parshikov, Aleksander
Georgiev, Pavel
Maksimenko, Oksana
Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding
title Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding
title_full Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding
title_fullStr Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding
title_full_unstemmed Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding
title_short Drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding
title_sort drosophila mini-white model system: new insights into positive position effects and the role of transcriptional terminators and gypsy insulator in transgene shielding
topic Gene Regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2800232/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19854952
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkp877
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