Abstract
The study of Drosophila ribosomal DNA (rDNA) dates back to the first bobbed mutations discovered by T.H. Morgan’s group nearly 100 years ago. From these earliest discoveries to the current day, Drosophila has proven to be a valuable system to study the genetic, molecular, and cellular aspects of rDNA in ribosome biogenesis. Our goal in writing this review was to describe the various aspects Drosophila rDNA, but within a historical context. We describe Drosophila nucleolar organizers and their flanking heterochromatin, how intergenic regions function in X-Y chromosome pairing, the fundamentals of Drosophila rDNA magnification and compensation, the fascinating biology of R1 and R2 retrotransposons and their mechanism of transposition, and the latest work on how rDNA acts as an epigenetic regulator of genome-wide gene expression in Drosophila. Expression of the rDNA itself is the driving mechanism in nucleologenesis (the formation of nucleoli), and we describe how Drosophila has contributed to our understanding of nucleologenesis. With the nucleolus now considered an important stress sensor within the cell, Drosophila will likely provide new insights into cell homeostasis as regulated by the nucleolus.
Keywords
- Drosophila
- rDNA
- Nucleologenesis
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- bb :
-
Bobbed
- CAT:
-
Chloramphenicol acetytransferase
- CTCF:
-
CCCTC-binding factor
- DFC:
-
Dense fibrillar component
- ECC:
-
Extrachromosomal circular copies
- ETS:
-
External transcribed spacer
- FISH:
-
Fluorescence in situ hybridization
- GFP:
-
Green fluorescent protein
- HSF:
-
Heat shock factor
- IGS:
-
Intergenic spacer regions
- IRES:
-
Internal ribosome entry site
- ITS1 and 2:
-
Internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2
- Kb:
-
Kilobase
- MNM:
-
Modifier of Mdg4 in Meiosis
- Nopp140:
-
Nucleolar phosphoprotein of 140 kDa
- NOR:
-
Nucleolar organizer region
- NoRC:
-
Nucleolar remodeling complex
- ORF:
-
Open reading frame
- PEV:
-
Position effect variegation
- P5CDh:
-
Pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase
- rDNA:
-
Ribosomal RNA genes
- rRNA:
-
Ribosomal RNA
- RNP:
-
Ribonucleoprotein
- RT-PCR:
-
Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction
- SAT:
-
Sine acido thymonucleinico
- SNM:
-
Stromalin in Meiosis
- TIF-IA:
-
Transcription initiation factor IA
- TOR:
-
Target of rapamycin
- TPA:
-
12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate
- TPRT:
-
Target-primed reverse transcription
- TU:
-
Transcription unit
- UBF:
-
Upstream binding factor
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Acknowledgements
We thank Tom Eickbush for reading portions of this review and for offering many insights during his visit to LSU in October, 2011. Our work on R2 retrotransposon expression upon loss of Nopp140 as reported here for the first time was supported by the NSF award MCB-0919709.
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DiMario, P., James, A., Raje, H. (2013). rDNA and Nucleologenesis in Drosophila . In: O'Day, D., Catalano, A. (eds) Proteins of the Nucleolus. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5818-6_3
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