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The structure and expression of a hybrid homeotic gene
Author(s) -
Rowe Annie,
Akam Michael
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02919.x
Subject(s) - biology , homeotic gene , genetics , gene , computational biology , gene expression , evolutionary biology , expression (computer science) , computer science , programming language
We describe the structure and expression of an exceptional bithorax complex mutation, C1 . This deletion mutation removes major portions of both the Ultrabithorax ( Ubx ) and abdominal‐A ( abd‐A ) protein coding regions, yet retains many of the functions normally executed by these genes. We show that the ends of the C1 deletion map to analogous positions within the Ubx and abd‐A transcription units, and that the deletion chromosome gives rise to a set of novel fusion transcripts that may encode hybrid abd‐A/Ubx proteins. These fusion products are transcribed from the abd‐A promoter, but exhibit a novel spatial pattern of expression that combines aspects of the normal Ubx and abd‐A distributions. This pattern provides evidence for the existence of regulatory elements located in the 3′ region of the Ubx transcription unit that can act on the abd‐A promoter at a distance of at least 20 kb.