The product of fem-1, a nematode sex-determining gene, contains a motif found in cell cycle control proteins and receptors for cell-cell interactions.
We report the cloning and sequencing of fem-1, a gene required for sex determination in both germline and somatic tissues in the nematode C. elegans. Clones carrying a 5.5 kb fragment are able to rescue the progeny of a fem-1 mutant when injected into its oocytes. The major fem-1 transcript in both sexes is 2.4 kb and comprises 11 exons. It encodes a soluble, intracellular protein of 656 amino acids that includes near its N-terminus six contiguous copies of a motif found in the products of the cdc10 gene of S. pombe, the SWI6 gene of S. cerevisiae, the Notch gene of Drosophila, and the lin-12 and glp-1 genes of C. elegans.
Spence
A M
AM
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England.
Coulson
A
A
Hodgkin
J
J
D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D002450:Cell Communication; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005260:Female; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D007365:Intercellular Junctions / Q000502:physiology*; D007438:Introns; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012733:Sex Differentiation / Q000235:genetics*; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins