title: Transcriptional regulation of the methuselah gene by dorsal protein in Drosophila melanogaster.
abstract: The Drosophila methuselah (mth) mutant has an approximately 35 percent increase in average lifespan, and enhanced resistance to various forms of stress, including starvation, high temperature, and dietary paraquat. To examine the transcriptional regulation of mth, we used luciferase assays employing Drosophila S2 cells. Two positive control elements were found at -542 to -272 (PE1) and +28 to +217 (PE2), where putative binding sites for transcription factors including Dorsal (Dl) were identified. Cotransfection of a Dl expression plasmid with a mth-luciferase reporter plasmid resulted in decreased reporter activity. PE1 and PE2, the minimal elements for strong promoter activity, were required for maximal repression by Dl protein. The N-terminal Rel homology domain (RHD) of Dl was not sufficient for repression of mth. We demonstrated by chromatin affinity precipitation (ChAP) assays in S2 cells that Dl bound to the putative PE1 binding site. Unexpectedly, semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the level of mth transcripts was reduced in dl flies. However, the in vivo result support the view that mth expression is regulated by dl, since it is well known that Dl functions as both a transcriptional activator and repressor depending on what other transcription factors are present. These findings suggest that both innate immunity and resistance to stress are controlled by Dl protein.
authors: Department of Biomedical Science and Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chunchon 200-702, Korea.
authors: Hyukmin
authors: H
authors: Kim
authors: Jinsu
authors: J
authors: Kim
authors: Yoonsoo
authors: Y
authors: Lee
authors: Jaeyeon
authors: J
authors: Yang
authors: Kyuhyung
authors: K
authors: Han