title: Molecular analysis of the C. elegans sex-determining gene tra-1: a gene encoding two zinc finger proteins.
abstract: The tra-1 gene is the terminal control gene for somatic sex determination in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we identify two tra-1 mRNAs: one is a 1.5 kb transcript that peaks in abundance in the second larval stage, and the other is a 5 kb transcript that is present at relatively constant abundance throughout development. Both RNAs occur at similar levels in both sexes, suggesting that regulation of tra-1 is posttranscriptional. Neither RNA is germline restricted. The two RNAs are colinear at their 5' ends: the shorter RNA encodes a protein with two zinc finger motifs, and the longer RNA encodes a protein with five zinc fingers. The identification of eight nonsense mutations confirms that these are authentic tra-1 RNAs and demonstrates that the longer one is essential for tra-1 activity. The transcription pattern reveals that alternative mRNA processing governs the number of zinc fingers in the resulting tra-1 protein. The tra-1 fingers are strikingly similar to those of three other proteins, the products of the human GLI and GLI3 and Drosophila cubitus interruptus Dominant (ciD) genes.
authors.affiliation: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zarkower
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hodgkin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004330:Drosophila; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis*; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger