title: Expression of a desaturase gene, desat1, in neural and nonneural tissues separately affects perception and emission of sex pheromones in Drosophila.
abstract: Animals often use sex pheromones for mate choice and reproduction. As for other signals, the genetic control of the emission and perception of sex pheromones must be tightly coadapted, and yet we still have no worked-out example of how these two aspects interact. Most models suggest that emission and perception rely on separate genetic control. We have identified a Drosophila melanogaster gene, desat1, that is involved in both the emission and the perception of sex pheromones. To explore the mechanism whereby these two aspects of communication interact, we investigated the relationship between the molecular structure, tissue-specific expression, and pheromonal phenotypes of desat1. We characterized the five desat1 transcripts-all of which yielded the same desaturase protein-and constructed transgenes with the different desat1 putative regulatory regions. Each region was used to target reporter transgenes with either (i) the fluorescent GFP marker to reveal desat1 tissue expression, or (ii) the desat1 RNAi sequence to determine the effects of genetic down-regulation on pheromonal phenotypes. We found that desat1 is expressed in a variety of neural and nonneural tissues, most of which are involved in reproductive functions. Our results suggest that distinct desat1 putative regulatory regions independently drive the expression in nonneural and in neural cells, such that the emission and perception of sex pheromones are precisely coordinated in this species.
authors: Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6265-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche1324-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique,  Université de Bourgogne, F-21000 Dijon,  France.
authors: François
authors: F
authors: Bousquet
authors: Tetsuya
authors: T
authors: Nojima
authors: Benjamin
authors: B
authors: Houot
authors: Isabelle
authors: I
authors: Chauvel
authors: Sylvie
authors: S
authors: Chaudy
authors: Stéphane
authors: S
authors: Dupas
authors: Daisuke
authors: D
authors: Yamamoto
authors: Jean-François
authors: JF
authors: Ferveur
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D000818:Animals; D057506:Arthropod Antennae / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D017344:Genes, Insect / Q000235:genetics; D006257:Head; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000378:metabolism; D034582:Integumentary System; D008297:Male; D009420:Nervous System / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D034622:RNA Interference; D012724:Sex Attractants / Q000378:metabolism*; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D006838:Hydrocarbons; D012724:Sex Attractants; D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases; C408225:desat1 protein, Drosophila