title: Molecular characterization of the Drosophila melanogaster urate oxidase gene, an ecdysone-repressible gene expressed only in the malpighian tubules.
abstract: The urate oxidase (UO) gene of Drosophila melanogaster is expressed during the third-instar larval and adult stages, exclusively within a subset of cells of the Malpighian tubules. The UO gene contains a 69-base-pair intron and encodes mature mRNAs of 1,224, 1,227, and 1,244 nucleotides, depending on the site of 3' endonucleolytic cleavage prior to polyadenylation. A direct repeat, 5'-AAGTGAGAGTGAT-3', is the proposed cis-regulatory element involved in 20-hydroxyecdysone repression of the UO gene. The deduced amino acid sequences of UO of D. melanogaster, rat, mouse, and pig and uricase II of soybean show 32 to 38% identity, with 22% of amino acid residues identical in all species. With use of P-element-mediated germ line transformation, 826 base pairs 5' and approximately 1,200 base pairs 3' of the D. melanogaster UO transcribed region contain all of the cis elements allowing for appropriate temporal regulation and Malpighian tubule-specific expression of the UO gene.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Wallrath
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Burnett
authors.forename: T B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002988:Cloaca / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D004440:Ecdysone / Q000494:pharmacology; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D005796:Genes; D008317:Malpighian Tubules / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014503:Urate Oxidase / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D004440:Ecdysone; D014503:Urate Oxidase