Over-expression of DREF in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc induces apoptosis and a notching wing phenotype.
BACKGROUND
DNA replication-related element binding factor (DREF) has been suggested to be involved in regulation of DNA replication- and proliferation-related genes in Drosophila. While the effects on the mutation in the DNA replication-related element (DRE) in cultured cells have been studied extensively, the consequences of elevating wild-type DREF activity in developing tissues have hitherto remained unclear.


RESULTS
We over-expressed DREF in the wing imaginal disc using a GAL4-UAS targeted expression system in Drosophila. Over-expression of DREF induced a notching wing phenotype, which was associated with ectopic apoptosis. A half reduction of the reaper, head involution defective and grim gene dose suppressed this DREF-induced notching wing phenotype. Furthermore, this was also the case with co-expression of baculovirus P35, a caspase inhibitor. In addition, over-expression of the 32 kDa boundary element-associated factor (BEAF-32), thought to compete against DREF for common binding sites in genomic regions, rescued the DREF-induced notching wing phenotype, while a half reduction of the genomic region, including the BEAF-32 gene, exerted enhancing effects. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence for a genetic interaction between DREF and BEAF-32.


CONCLUSIONS
The DREF-induced notching wing phenotype is caused by induction of apoptosis in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc.
Yoshida
H
H
Division of Biochemistry, Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8681, Japan.
Inoue
Y H
YH
Hirose
F
F
Sakaguchi
K
K
Matsukage
A
A
Yamaguchi
M
M
D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; D018628:Gene Dosage; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D007814:Larva; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000235:genetics; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000473:pathology
C452919:BEAF-32 protein, Drosophila; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C099494:Dref protein, Drosophila; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005136:Eye Proteins; C108880:HID protein, Drosophila; D009479:Neuropeptides; D010455:Peptides; D014157:Transcription Factors; C108881:grim protein, Drosophila; C086973:rpr protein, Drosophila