Sequenced alleles of the Caenorhabditis elegans sex-determining gene her-1 include a novel class of conditional promoter mutations.
In the control of Caenorhabditis elegans sex determination, the her-1 gene must normally be activated to allow male development of XO animals and deactivated to allow hermaphrodite development of XX animals. The gene is regulated at the transcriptional level and has two nested male-specific transcripts. The larger of these encodes a small, novel, cysteine-rich protein responsible for masculinizing activity. Of the 32 extant mutant alleles, 30 cause partial or complete loss of masculinizing function (lf), while 2 are gain-of-function (gf) alleles resulting in abnormal masculinization of XX animals. We have identified the DNA sequence changes in each of these 32 alleles. Most affect the protein coding functions of the gene, but six are in the promoter region, including the two gf mutations. These two mutations may define a binding site for negative regulators of her-1. Three of the four remaining promoter mutations are single base changes that cause, surprisingly, temperature-sensitive loss of her-1 function. Such conditional promoter mutations have previously not been found among either prokaryotic or eukaryotic mutants analyzed at the molecular level.
Perry
M D
MD
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0347.
Trent
C
C
Robertson
B
B
Chamblin
C
C
Wood
W B
WB
D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D017354:Point Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D003062:Codon; D018509:DNA, Helminth; D015801:Helminth Proteins; C079744:her-1 protein, C elegans