TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex-specific alternative splicing of RNA from the transformer gene results from sequence-dependent splice site blockage
AU - Sosnowski, Barbara A.
AU - Belote, John M.
AU - McKeown, Michael
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants to M. M. and J. M. B. from the National Institutes of Health. B. A. S. is funded by a postdoctoral training grant from the NIH to the Salk Institute. M. M. is a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. Kevin Nash and Anthony Manly provided excellent technical assistance throughout this project. We thank Russell Boggs for valuable discussions throughout the course of this work. We thank Leslie Bell, Eleanor Maine, Paul Schedl, and Tom Cline for exchanging sequence information about Sxl prior to publication. Gary Struhl is thanked for placing the portable intron in a GCN4 construct suitable for Drosophila transformation and for producing flies carrying the construct. We thank Michael Green for suggesting oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis of the non-sex-specific splice site, and Tom Maniatis for helpful discussions.
PY - 1989/8/11
Y1 - 1989/8/11
N2 - Sex-specific alternative splicing of RNA from the Drosophila transformer gene involves competition between two 3′ splice sites. In the absence of Sex-lethal activity (as in males), only one site functions; in the presence of Sex-lethal activity (as in females), both sites function. Information for sex-specific splice site choice is contained within the intron itself. Deletions of the splice site used in males lead to Sex-lethal-independent use of the otherwise female-specific site. The relative amounts of unspliced and spliced RNA derived from these mutant genes do not change with changes in Sex-lethal activity. Specific nucleotide changes in the non-sex-specific splice site do not affect splicing activity but eliminate Sex-lethal-induced regulation. A deletion removing material between the two splice sites does not eliminate sex-specific regulation, while a deletion of the female splice site leads to a female-specific increase in unspliced RNA. These results are consistent with a model in which female-specific factors block the function of the non-sex-specific 3′ splice site.
AB - Sex-specific alternative splicing of RNA from the Drosophila transformer gene involves competition between two 3′ splice sites. In the absence of Sex-lethal activity (as in males), only one site functions; in the presence of Sex-lethal activity (as in females), both sites function. Information for sex-specific splice site choice is contained within the intron itself. Deletions of the splice site used in males lead to Sex-lethal-independent use of the otherwise female-specific site. The relative amounts of unspliced and spliced RNA derived from these mutant genes do not change with changes in Sex-lethal activity. Specific nucleotide changes in the non-sex-specific splice site do not affect splicing activity but eliminate Sex-lethal-induced regulation. A deletion removing material between the two splice sites does not eliminate sex-specific regulation, while a deletion of the female splice site leads to a female-specific increase in unspliced RNA. These results are consistent with a model in which female-specific factors block the function of the non-sex-specific 3′ splice site.
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U2 - 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90426-1
DO - 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90426-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 2503251
AN - SCOPUS:0024378075
SN - 0092-8674
VL - 58
SP - 449
EP - 459
JO - Cell
JF - Cell
IS - 3
ER -