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Autosomal control of the Y-chromosome kl-3 loop of Drosophila melanogaster

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Abstract

The Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster carries a limited number of loci necessary for male fertility that possess a series of unconventional features that still hinder a definition of their biological role: they have extremely large sizes; accommodate huge amounts of repetitive DNA; and develop prominent, lampbrush-like loops that bind a number of non-Y-encoded proteins. To obtain insight into the functional role of the loop-forming fertility factors, we characterized four autosomal male-sterile mutations that identify two loci we named loop unfolding protein-1 (lup-1) and loop unfolding protein-2 (lup-2). Biochemical and ultrastructural analysis revealed that neither of them impairs the synthesis of the putative dynein subunit encoded by the ORF localized within the kl-3 fertility factor. However, the stability of four dynein heavy chains is simultaneously affected in each mutant, together with the regular assembly of the axonemal dynein arms that are either absent or strongly reduced. These results indicate that the synthesis of the kl-3-encoded dynein can be uncoupled from the formation of the corresponding loop and suggest that this structure does not simply represent the cytological counterpart of a huge transcription unit, but must be regarded as a complex organelle serving some additional function necessary for male fertility.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank B. Wakimoto and D.L. Lindsley for providing us with a selected sample of male steriles from C. Zuker’s collection of vital mutants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Universita′ di Roma “La Sapienza”, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Piergentili, Silvia Bonaccorsi, Grazia Daniela Raffa & Claudio Pisano

  2. Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari del CNR, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Silvia Bonaccorsi

  3. Department of Evolutionary Microbiology, University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Johannes H. P. Hackstein

  4. Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva, Universita′ di Siena, Via Aldo Moro 4, Siena, Italy

    Caterina Mencarelli

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  1. Roberto Piergentili
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  2. Silvia Bonaccorsi
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  3. Grazia Daniela Raffa
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  4. Claudio Pisano
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  5. Johannes H. P. Hackstein
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  6. Caterina Mencarelli
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Correspondence to Silvia Bonaccorsi.

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Communicated by R. Paro

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Piergentili, R., Bonaccorsi, S., Raffa, G.D. et al. Autosomal control of the Y-chromosome kl-3 loop of Drosophila melanogaster. Chromosoma 113, 188–196 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-004-0308-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-004-0308-2

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