title: Cis-regulatory elements affecting the Nanos gene promoter in the germline stem cells.
abstract: Drosophila Nanos gene plays an important role in stem cell maintenance and body patterning. With the purpose of understanding the cis-regulatory machinery involved in the transcription of the nanos gene in the germline stem cells, we examined its promoter fragment from +97 to -708 relative to the transcription start site and identified enhancer elements located between position -108 and +97. Experiments with transgenic flies revealed that the minimal promoter (from -108 to +20) is sufficient in the germline stem cells for the GFP expression in transgenic Drosophila. Moreover, the flag-tagged nanos protein blotting experiments revealed that a short promoter fragment plus some sequences of the nos 5'UTR spanning -108 to +97 could efficiently drive the expression of the flag-tagged [Nos-mRNA-nos3'UTR] transgene in transgenic flies indicating that the cis-regulatory elements located between positions -108 and +97 of the nanos promoter are sufficient to fully transcribe the nanos mRNA. Deletion of the identified cis-acting sequences from the promoter rendered it non-functional as it could no longer transcribe the nanos mRNA in transgenic flies thus revealing the importance of these sequences for the transcription of the nanos gene.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, AUP, Pakistan; State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane and Membrane Biotechnology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. bachakhan35@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Ijaz
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Muti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: ur Rehman
authors.forename: Farzana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rashid
authors.forename: Sanaullah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Aqib
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Laixin
authors.forename: Naeem
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: ud din Ahmed
authors.forename: A Zahoor
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Swati
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C070574:nos protein, Drosophila; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins