Functional and conserved domains of the Drosophila transcription factor encoded by the segmentation gene knirps.
The Drosophila gap gene knirps (kni) is required for abdominal segmentation. It encodes a steroid/thyroid orphan receptor-type transcription factor which is distributed in a broad band of nuclei in the posterior region of the blastoderm. To identify essential domains of the kni protein (KNI), we cloned and sequenced the DNA encompassing the coding region of nine kni mutant alleles of different strength and kni-homologous genes of related insect species. We also examined in vitro-modified versions of KNI in various assay systems both in vitro and in tissue culture. The results show that KNI contains several functional domains which are arranged in a modular fashion. The N-terminal 185-amino-acid region which includes the DNA-binding domain and a functional nuclear location signal fails to provide kni activity to the embryo. However, a truncated KNI protein that contains additional 47 amino acids exerts rather strong kni activity which is functionally defined by a weak kni mutant phenotype of the embryo. The additional 47-amino-acid stretch includes a transcriptional repressor domain which acts in the context of a heterologous DNA-binding domain of the yeast transcriptional activator GAL4. The different domains of KNI as defined by functional studies are conserved during insect evolution.
Max-Planck-Institut für biophysikalische Chemie, Abteilung Molekulare Entwicklungsbiologie, Göttingen, Germany.
N
N
Gerwin
A
A
La Rosée
F
F
Sauer
H P
HP
Halbritter
M
M
Neumann
H
H
Jäckle
U
U
Nauber
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002451:Cell Compartmentation; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology
D017931:DNA Primers; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C074089:kni protein, Drosophila