Abstract
The homeotic genes of the Drosophila bithorax complex are controlled by a large cis-regulatory region that ensures their segmentally restricted pattern of expression. A deletion that removes the Frontabdominal-7 cis- regulatory region (Fab-71) dominantly transforms parasegment 11 into parasegment 12. Previous studies suggested that removal of a domain boundary element on the proximal side of Fab71 is responsible for this gain-of- function phenotype. In this article we demonstrate that the Fab-71 deletion also removes a silencer element, the iab-7 PRE, which maps to a different DNA segment and plays a different role in regulating parasegment-specific expression patterns of the Abd-B gene. The lab7 PRE mediates pairing- sensitive silencing of mini-white, and can maintain the segmentally restricted expression pattern of a BXD, Ubx/lacZ reporter transgene. Both silencing activities depend upon Polycomb Group proteins. Pairing-sensitive silencing is relieved by removing the transvection protein Zeste, but is enhanced in a novel pairing-independent manner by the zeste1 allele. The iab-7PRE silencer is contained within a 0.8-kb fragment that spans a nuclease hypersensitive site, and silencing appears to depend on the chromatin remodeling protein, the GAGA factor.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1365-1380 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Genetics |
Volume | 146 |
Issue number | 4 |
State | Published - 1997 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Genetics