title: Novel female-specific trans-spliced and alternative splice forms of dsx in the silkworm Bombyx mori.
abstract: The Bombyx mori doublesex gene (Bmdsx) plays an important role in somatic sexual development. Its pre-mRNA splices in a sex-specific manner to generate two female-specific and one male-specific splice forms. The present study investigated six novel dsx variants generated by trans-splicing between female dsx transcripts and two additional novel genes, dsr1 and dsr2. Expression analysis indicated that Bmdsx-dsr1 represented splicing noise, whereas dsr2, which trans-spliced with dsx to generate five variants, regulated the expression of the female-specific B. mori dsx transcript Bmdsx(F)s. We unexpectedly found a novel exon 2n insertion during Bmdsx transcription, which did not influence the validity of the novel protein, BmDSX(F3). Ectopic expression of BmDSX(F3) repressed the pheromone-binding protein gene and the testis-specific gene A2 in males, and activated of the storage protein 1 gene. Our findings suggest that trans-splicing is a novel regulatory function of Bmdsx, which participates in female sexual development by regulating the expression of three BmDSX(F) proteins.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Hanfu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Sanyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Xingfu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zha
authors.forename: Huizhen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Qingyou
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012831:Bombyx / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008297:Male; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism; D020040:Trans-Splicing
chemical_list: C442431:Bmdsx protein, Bombyx mori; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; C403094:pheromone-binding protein, Bombyx