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d UTP ase expression correlates with cell division potential in Drosophila melanogaster
Author(s) -
Horváth András,
Batki Júlia,
Henn László,
Lukacsovich Tamás,
Róna Gergely,
Erdélyi Miklós,
Vértessy Beáta G.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the febs journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.981
H-Index - 204
eISSN - 1742-4658
pISSN - 1742-464X
DOI - 10.1111/febs.13255
Subject(s) - biology , drosophila melanogaster , dna replication , dna , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , gene expression , transcription (linguistics) , uracil , genetics , linguistics , philosophy
dUTP pyrophosphatase ( dUTP ase) is a dNTP ‐sanitizing enzyme that prevents the appearance of potentially harmful uracil bases in DNA by hydrolyzing cellular dUTP . This function of dUTP ase is found to be essential in many organisms including Drosophila melanogaster . Previously, we showed that the expression pattern of dUTP ase determines the extent of uracil accumulation in the genome of different tissues. We wished to find the regulatory mechanism that eventually leaves a set of tissues with a uracil‐free and intact genome. We found that the expression pattern established by the promoter of Drosophila dUTP ase overlaps with mRNA and protein expression, excluding the involvement of other post‐transcriptional contributions. This promoter was found to be active in primordial tissues, such as in the imaginal discs of larvae, in the larval brain and in reproductive organs. In the case of brain and imaginal tissues, we observed that the promoter activity depends on a DNA replication‐related element motif, the docking site of DNA replication‐related element binding factor, which is known as a transcriptional activator of genes involved in replication and proliferation. These results suggest that dUTP ase expression is fine‐tuned to meet the requirements of DNA synthesis in tissues where the maintenance of genome integrity is of high importance.