title: Correlated evolution of the cis-acting regulatory elements and developmental expression of the Drosophila Gld gene in seven species from the subgroup melanogaster.
abstract: The tissue-specific expression patterns of glucose dehydrogenase (GLD) exhibit a high degree of interspecific variation in the adult reproductive tract among the species in the genus Drosophila. We chose to focus on the evolution of GLD expression and the evolution of the Gld promoter in seven closely related species in the melanogaster subgroup as a means of elucidating the relationship of changes in cis-acting regulatory elements in the Gld promoter region with changes in tissue-specific expression. Although little variation in tissue-specific patterns of GLD was found in nonreproductive tissues during development, a surprisingly high level of variation was observed in the expression of GLD in both developing and mature reproductive organs. In some cases this variation is correlated with changes in sequence elements in the Gld promoter which were previously shown to direct tissue-specific expression in the reproductive tract. In particular D. teissieri adult males do not express GLD in their ejaculatory ducts, atypical of the melanogaster subgroup species. The Gld promoter region of D. teissieri specifically lacks all three of the TTAGA regulatory elements present in D. melanogaster. The TTAGA elements were previously shown to direct reporter gene expression to the ejaculatory duct. Together these data suggest the absence or presence of the TTAGA elements may be responsible for variation in the absence or presence of GLD in the ejaculatory duct among species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Cavener
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D042843:Glucose 1-Dehydrogenase; D005948:Glucose Dehydrogenases / Q000235:genetics*; D007814:Larva / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013045:Species Specificity; D016385:TATA Box
chemical_list: D005948:Glucose Dehydrogenases; D042843:Glucose 1-Dehydrogenase