title: Organisation and expression of a cluster of yolk protein genes in the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina.
abstract: The Australian sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina is a major pest for the Australian and New Zealand sheep industries. With the long-term aim of making a strain of L. cuprina suitable for a genetic control program, we previously developed a tetracycline-repressible female lethal genetic system in Drosophila. A key part of this system is a female-specific promoter from a yolk protein (yp) gene controlling expression of the tetracycline-dependent transactivator (tTA). Here we report the sequence of a 14.2 kb genomic clone from L. cuprina that contains a cluster of three complete yp genes and one partial yp gene. The Lcyp genes are specifically expressed in females that have received a protein meal. A bioinformatic analysis of the promoter of one of the yp genes (LcypA) identified several putative binding sites for DSX, a known regulator of yp gene expression in other Diptera. A transgenic strain of L. cuprina was made that contained the LcypA promoter driving the expression of the Escherichia coli lacZ reporter gene. Transgenic females express high levels of β-galactosidase after a protein meal. Thus the LcypA promoter could be used to obtain female-specific expression of tTA in transgenic L. cuprina.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7614, North Carolina, USA. mjscott3@ncsu.edu
authors.forename: Maxwell J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Asela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Atapattu
authors.forename: Anja H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Schiemann
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Concha
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: Brandi-lee
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.forename: Esther J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Belikoff
authors.forename: Jörg C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.forename: Abhimanyu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarkar
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics*; D001315:Australia; D004175:Diptera / Q000235:genetics*; D004527:Egg Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017344:Genes, Insect; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D005854:Germ Cells; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D009520:New Zealand; D012756:Sheep / Q000469:parasitology*; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D019076:Transgenes
chemical_list: D004527:Egg Proteins