title: The clock gene period in the medfly Ceratitis capitata.
abstract: We have isolated the clock gene period (per) from the medfly Ceratitis capitata, one of the most economically important insect pest species. The overall pattern of conserved, non-conserved and functional domains that are observed within dipteran and lepidopteran per orthologues is preserved within the coding sequence. Expression analysis from fly heads revealed a daily oscillation in per mRNA in both light : dark cycles and in constant darkness. However PER protein levels from head extracts did not show any significant evidence for cycling in either of these two conditions. When the Ceratitis per transgene under the control of the Drosophila per promoter and 3'UTR was introduced into Drosophila per -null mutant hosts, the transformants revealed a low level of rescue of behavioural rhythmicity. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the rhythmic transformants showed some similarities to that of ceratitis, suggesting that Ceratitis per carries species-specific information that can evidently affect the Drosophila host's downstream rhythmic behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Padua, via U. Bassi, 58/B, 35131 Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Mazzotta
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sandrelli
authors.forename: Mauro A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zordan
authors.forename: Moyra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Benna
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cisotto
authors.forename: Ezio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rosato
authors.forename: Charalambos P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Kyriacou
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015153:Blotting, Western; D033622:Ceratitis capitata / Q000235:genetics*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D002980:Climate; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D005091:Exons; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017344:Genes, Insect; D006720:Homozygote; D007438:Introns; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D056950:Period Circadian Proteins; D010507:Periodicity; D010802:Phylogeny; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012984:Software; D013045:Species Specificity; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D019076:Transgenes
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C539040:PER protein, Drosophila; D056950:Period Circadian Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012313:RNA