Abstract
Partial and total loss of function mutant alleles of a putative Drosophila homologue (DPhK-γ) of the vertebrate phosphorylase kinase γ-subunit gene have been isolated. DPhK-γ is required in early embryonic processes, such as gastrulation and mesoderm formation; however, defects in these processes are seen only when both the maternal and zygotic components of DPhK-γ expression are eliminated. Loss of zygotic expression alone does not appear to affect normal embryonic and larval development; some pupal lethality is observed but the majority of mutant animals eclose as adults. Many of these adults show defects in their leg musculature (e.g. missing and degenerating muscles), in addition to exhibiting melanised “tumours” on their leg joints. Loss of only the maternal component has no obvious phenotypic consequences. The DPhKγ gene has been cloned and sequenced. It has an open reading frame (ORF) of 1680 by encoding a 560 amino acid protein. The predicted amino acid sequence of DPhK-γ has two conserved domains, the catalytic kinase and calmodulin-binding domains, separated by a linker sequence. The amino acid sequence of DPhK-γ is homologous to that of mammalian PhK-γ proteins but differs in the length and amino acid composition of its linker sequence. The expression of DPhK-γ mRNA is developmentally regulated. We discuss the implications of these observations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ashburner M (1989) Drosophila, A laboratory handbook. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, New York
Bate M, Rushton E, Currie DA (1991) Cells with persistent twist expression are the embryonic precursors of adult muscles in Drosophila. Development 113:79–89
Bender PK, Emerson CP Jr (1987) Skeletal muscle phosphorylase kinase catalytic subunit mRNAs are expressed in heart tissue but not liver. J Biol Chem 262:8799–8805
Brown NH, Kafatos FC (1988) Functional Drosophila cDNA libraries from Drosophila embryos. J Mol Biol 203:425–432
Calalb MB, Fox DT, Hanks SK (1992) Molecular cloning and enzymatic analysis of the rat homolog of “PhK-γT”, an isoform of phosphorylase kinase catalytic subunit. J Biol Chem 267:1455–1463
Campos-Ortega JA, Hartenstein V (1985) The embryonic development of Drosophila melanogaster. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo
Cawley KC, Ramachandran C, Gorin FA, Walsh DA (1988) Nucleotide sequence of cDNA encoding the catalytic subunit of phosphorylase kinase from rat soleus muscle. Nucleic Acids Res 16:2355–2356
Chamberlain JS, Vantuiness P, Reeves AA, Philip BA, Caskey CT (1987) Isolation of cDNA clones for the catalytic subunit of mouse muscle phosphorylase kinase: expression of mRNA in normal and mutant Phk mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 84:2886–2890
Chovnick A (1968) Generation of a series of Y chromosomes carrying the ν+ region of the X. Dros Inf Ser 43:170
Chrisman TD, Jordan JE, Exton JH (1982) Purification of rat liver phosphorylase kinase. J Biol Chem 257:10798–10804
da Cruz EFS, Cohen PTW (1987) Isolation and sequence analysis of a cDNA clone encoding the entire catalytic subunit of phosphorylase kinase. FEBS Lett 220:36–42
Hanks SK (1989) Messenger ribonucleic acid encoding an apparent isoform of phosphorylase kinase catalytic subunit is abundant in the adult testis. Mol Endocrinol 3:110–116
Hanks SK (1991) Eukaryotic kinases. Curr Opin Struct Biol 1:369–383
Hanratty WP, Ryerse JS (1981) A genetic melanotic neoplasm of Drosophila melanogaster. Dev Biol 83:238–249
Hsu S, Ju G, Fan L (1988) The glucose oxidase-DAB-nickel method in peroxidase histochemistry of the nervous system. Neurosci Lett 85:169–171
Kee SM, Graves DJ (1986) Isolation and properties of the active γ subunit of phosphorylase kinase. J Biol Chem 261:4732–4737
Lefevre G Jr (1971) Salivary chromosome bands and the frequency of crossing over in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 67:497–513
Levis R, Hazelrigg T, Rubin GM (1985) Effects of genomic position on the expression of transduced copies of the white gene of Drosophila. Science 229:558–561
Lyon JB Jr (1970) The X-chromosome and the enzymes controlling muscle glycogen: phosphorylase kinase. Biochem Genet 4:169–185
Malthus R, Clark DG, Watts C, Sneyd JGT (1980) Glycogen-storage disease in rats, a genetically determined deficiency of liver phosphorylase kinase. Biochem J 188:99–106
Paudel HK, Carlson GM (1987) Inhibition of the catalytic subunit of phosphorylase kinase by its α/β subunits. J Biol Chem 262:11912–11915
Picket-Gies CA, Walsh DA (1986) Phosphorylase kinase. In: Boyer PD, Krebs EG (eds) The enzymes, vol 17. Academic Press, Orlando, Fla., pp 395–459
Proux D, Alexander Y, Delain D, Dreyfus JC (1974) The isozymes of phosphorylase kinase in various mammalian tissues. Biochimie 56:1559–1564
Robertson HM, Preston CR, Philips RW, Johnson-Schitz D, Benz WK, Engels WR (1988) A stable source of P-element transposase in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 118:461–470
Sambrook J, Fritsch EF, Maniatis T (1989). Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, New York
Schalet A (1969) A Y chromosome carrying the ν+ to dy + region of the X. Dros Inf Ser 44:123
Shenolikar S, Cohen PTW, Cohen P, Nairn AC, Perry SV (1979) The role of calmodulin in the structure and regulation of phosphorylase kinase from rabbit skeletal muscle. Eur J Biochem 100:329–337
Skuster JR, Chan KFJ, Graves DJ (1980) Isolation and properties of the catalytically active γ subunit of phosphorylase b kinase. J Biol Chem 255:2203–2210
Sparrow JC (1978) Melanotic tumors. In: Ashburner M, Wright TRF (eds) The genetics and biology of Drosophila, vol 2b. Academic Press, London, New York, San Francisco, pp 277–313
Taira T, Kii R, Sakai K, Tabuchi H, Takimoto S, Nakamura S, Takahashi J, Hashimoto E, Yamamura H, Nishizuka Y (1982) Comparison of glycogen phosphorylase kinases of various rat tissues. J Biochem 91:883–888
Tautz D, Pfeifle C (1989) A non-radioactive in situ hybridisation method for the localisation of specific RNAs in Drosophila embryos reveals translational control of the segmentation gene hunchback. Chromosoma 98:81–85
Thisse B, Stoltzel C, Gorostiza TC, Perrin Schmitt F (1988) Sequence of the twist gene and nuclear localization of its protein in endomesodermal cells of early Drosophila embryos. EMBO J 7:2175–2183
Tian S-S, Tsoulfas P, Zinn K (1991) Three receptor-linked proteintyrosine phosphatases are selectively expressed on central nervous system axons in the Drosophila embryo. Cell 67:675–685
Voelker RA, Wisely GB, Huang S-M, Gyurkovics H (1985) Genetic and molecular variation in the RPII215 region of Drosophila melanogaster. Mol Gen Genet 201:437–445
Yang X, Scow KT, Bahri SM, Oon SH, Chia W (1991) Two Drosophila receptor-like tyrosine phosphatase genes are expressed in a subset of developing axons and pioneer neurons in the embryonic CNS. Cell 67:661–673
Zevgolis VG, Sotiroudis TG, Evangelopoulos AE (1991) Phosphorylase kinase from bovine stomach smooth muscle: a Ca2+-dependent protein kinase associated with an actin-like molecule. Biochem Biophys Acta 1091:222–230
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by D. Finnegan
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bahri, S.M., Chia, W. DPhK-γ, a putative Drosophila kinase with homology to vertebrate phosphorylase kinase γ subunits: molecular characterisation of the gene and phenotypic analysis of loss of function mutants. Molec. Gen. Genet. 245, 588–597 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00282221
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00282221