scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Showing papers by "Michael Snyder published in 1982"


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jul 1982-Cell
TL;DR: Most of a 9 kb region of the Drosophila genome containing genes for several cuticle proteins has been sequenced and five cuticle-gene-like sequences have been identified and mapped, and they are discussed as a model small gene family.

193 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Protein and DNA sequence analyses indicate that point mutations cause two amino acid substitutions that change the electrophoretic mobility of CPf2 relative to that of CP2, and insertion of a transposable element into the putative promoter region of the CP3 gene is evidently responsible for inactivatingCP3 gene expression.
Abstract: Two mutations that affect larval cuticle protein gene expression in the 2/3 variant Drosophila melanogaster strain were investigated. We demonstrate that this strain synthesizes an electrophoretic variant, fast 2 (CPf2), of wild-type cuticle protein 2(CP2). It also lacks detectable amounts of cuticle protein 3 (CP3). The other major cuticle proteins are still present. Protein and DNA sequence analyses indicate that point mutations cause two amino acid substitutions that change the electrophoretic mobility of CPf2 relative to that of CP2. The mutation abolishing the expression of CP3 was found to be a 7.3-kilobase DNA insertion located within the T-A-T-A box region of this gene, at -31 base pairs from the mRNA start site. This DNA insertion, called H.M.S. Beagle, belongs to a conserved family of repeated DNA elements that have characteristics similar to those of previously characterized Drosophila transposable elements. H.M.S. Beagle elements are repeated approximately 50 times in the haploid genome and exhibit restriction fragment-length polymorphisms around points of insertion between Canton S, Oregon R, and 2/3 Drosophila strains. Sequence analysis indicates that H.M.S. Beagle contains 266-base-pair direct repeats at its termini and is flanked by a duplication of 4 base pairs of target DNA sequence, T-A-T-A, in the CP3 gene insertion. Thus, insertion of a transposable element into the putative promoter region of the CP3 gene is evidently responsible for inactivating CP3 gene expression.

52 citations