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Development, Vol 126, Issue 13 2841-2853, Copyright © 1999 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

The N-terminal domain of Sxl protein disrupts Sxl autoregulation in females and promotes female-specific splicing of tra in males

G Deshpande, G Calhoun and PD Schedl
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. gdeshpande@molbio.princeton.edu

Sex determination in Drosophila depends upon the post-transcriptional regulatory activities of the Sex-lethal (Sxl) gene. Sxl maintains the female determined state and activates female differentiation pathways by directing the female-specific splicing of Sxl and tra pre-mRNAs. While there is compelling evidence that Sxl proteins regulate splicing by directly binding to target RNAs, previous studies indicate that the two Sxl RNA-binding domains are not in themselves sufficient for biological activity and that an intact N-terminal domain is also critical for splicing function. To further investigate the functions of the Sxl N terminus, we ectopically expressed a chimeric protein consisting of the N-terminal 99 amino acids fused to ss-galactosidase. The Nss-gal fusion protein behaves like a dominant negative, interfering with the Sxl autoregulatory feedback loop and killing females. This dominant negative activity can be attributed to the recruitment of the fusion protein into the large Sxl:Snf splicing complexes that are found in vivo and the consequent disruption of these complexes. In addition to the dominant negative activity, the Nss-gal fusion protein has a novel gain-of-function activity in males: it promotes the female-specific processing of tra pre-mRNAs. This novel activity is discussed in light of the blockage model for the tra splicing regulation.


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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1999