title: A dicistronic gene pair within a cluster of "EF-hand" protein genes in the genomes of Drosophila species.
abstract: Androcam is a Drosophila melanogaster calmodulin-related protein that functions specifically in the testis. We show that the Acam gene is part of a cluster of three intronless genes arranged in a head-to-tail manner. The additional genes also encode calmodulin-related proteins with testis-specific transcription. Acam and the 5'-most gene (gene1) generate monocistronic transcripts. Surprisingly, the central gene (gene2) is transcribed only as a dicistronic transcript with Acam. A similar cluster is found in D. yakuba. In D. pseudoobscura, the cluster contains four genes: two Acam-type genes downstream of a single gene related to both gene1 and gene2 and a fourth weakly related gene. Nevertheless, the D. pseudoobscura cluster also generates a dicistronic transcript from a gene pair analogous to the gene2-Acam pair. A cotranscribed gene1/2-Acam gene pair may be the founding feature of this locus. Although Acam protein is present in D. melanogaster and D. pseudoobscura testes, cognate proteins for the gene1/2-type ORFs are not detectable by immunoblotting and mass spectrometry techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
authors.forename: Paige
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pavlik
authors.forename: Vanaja
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Konduri
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Massa
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Simonette
authors.forename: Kathleen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Beckingham
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D049750:Genome, Insect / Q000235:genetics*; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics*; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: C090181:Acam protein, Drosophila; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins