title: Identification of functionally significant elements in the second intron of the Drosophila melanogaster Trithorax-like gene.
abstract: It is known that a lot of genes having a distinct expression pattern require the complex system of transcription regulation. The regulatory regions of such genes can include not only the 5'-flanking regions, but also other regions, particularly their intron sequences. The Drosophila melanogaster Trithorax-like (Trl) gene, encoding the GAGA protein, is one of the genes with complex expression pattern. GAGA is one of a few transcription factors that can regulate gene expression at multiple levels. The GAGA-mediated modulation of expression seems to be linked with modifications of the chromatin structure. Nowadays, the regulatory potential of the Trl 5'-flanking region that contains multiple GAGA binding sites has been analyzed, but the presence of the functionally significant elements in other Trl regions has not been examined. We found DNase I hypersensitive sites, evolutionary-conserved sequences and numerous GAGA binding sites in the second intron of the Trl gene. Interestingly, these sequences localize in two main regions of the intron in immediate proximity to preferred regions of transposon insertions. Additionally, we revealed that deletion of the intron fragment in the Trl(1-72) mutants caused an alteration of the Trl expression pattern. These results allow us to conclude that the second intron of the Trl gene contains functionally significant elements.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 10 Lavrentieva Street, Novosibirsk 630090, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Karagodin
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Omelina
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Fedorova
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Baricheva
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics*; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C063460:Trl protein, Drosophila