The RGS gene loco is essential for male reproductive system differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster.
BACKGROUND
The loco gene encodes several different isoforms of a regulator of G-protein signalling. These different isoforms of LOCO are part of a pathway enabling cells to respond to external signals. LOCO is known to be required at various developmental stages including neuroblast division, glial cell formation and oogenesis. Less is known about LOCO and its involvement in male development therefore to gain further insight into the role of LOCO in development we carried out a genetic screen and analysed males with reduced fertility.


RESULTS
We identified a number of lethal loco mutants and four semi-lethal lines, which generate males with reduced fertility. We have identified a fifth loco transcript and show that it is differentially expressed in developing pupae. We have characterised the expression pattern of all loco transcripts during pupal development in the adult testes, both in wild type and loco mutant strains. In addition we also show that there are various G-protein alpha subunits expressed in the testis all of which may be potential binding partners of LOCO.


CONCLUSIONS
We propose that the male sterility in the new loco mutants result from a failure of accurate morphogenesis of the adult reproductive system during metamorphosis, we propose that this is due to a loss of expression of loco c3. Thus, we conclude that specific isoforms of loco are required for the differentiation of the male gonad and genital disc.
McGurk
Leeanne
L
Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK. leeanne.mcgurk@hgu.mrc.ac.uk
Pathirana
Stephen
S
Rothwell
Kathleen
K
Trimbuch
Thorsten
T
Colombini
Paolo
P
Yu
Fengwei
F
Chia
William
W
Bownes
Mary
M
D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D005837:Genitalia, Male / Q000254:growth & development; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008675:Metamorphosis, Biological / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C119015:LOCO protein, Drosophila; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled