title: Drosophila dany is essential for transcriptional control and nuclear architecture in spermatocytes.
abstract: The terminal differentiation of adult stem cell progeny depends on transcriptional control. A dramatic change in gene expression programs accompanies the transition from proliferating spermatogonia to postmitotic spermatocytes, which prepare for meiosis and subsequent spermiogenesis. More than a thousand spermatocyte-specific genes are transcriptionally activated in early Drosophila spermatocytes. Here we describe the identification and initial characterization of dany, a gene required in spermatocytes for the large-scale change in gene expression. Similar to tMAC and tTAFs, the known major activators of spermatocyte-specific genes, dany has a recent evolutionary origin, but it functions independently. Like dan and danr, its primordial relatives with functions in somatic tissues, dany encodes a nuclear Psq domain protein. Dany associates preferentially with euchromatic genome regions. In dany mutant spermatocytes, activation of spermatocyte-specific genes and silencing of non-spermatocyte-specific genes are severely compromised and the chromatin no longer associates intimately with the nuclear envelope. Therefore, as suggested recently for Dan/Danr, we propose that Dany is essential for the coordination of change in cell type-specific expression programs and large-scale spatial chromatin reorganization.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Life Sciences (IMLS), University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trost
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Life Sciences (IMLS), University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ariane C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Blattner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Life Sciences (IMLS), University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Life Sciences (IMLS), University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland christian.lehner@imls.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Christian F
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0185-6049
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Lehner
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D059447:Cell Cycle Checkpoints / Q000235:genetics; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D053144:Cell Nucleus Shape / Q000235:genetics; D002843:Chromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics*; D005298:Fertility / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017344:Genes, Insect; D008297:Male; D008540:Meiosis / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009685:Nuclear Envelope / Q000378:metabolism; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013090:Spermatocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D013347:Subcellular Fractions / Q000378:metabolism; D013737:Testis / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C000622223:dany protein, Drosophila
keywords: Chromatin; Differentiation; Meiosis; Spermatocytes; Transcription