Tissue-specific and dietary control of alpha-amylase gene expression in the adult midgut of Drosophila melanogaster.

Abstract

The regulatory effects of allelic substitution at the trans-acting mapP locus and of dietary glucose on the expression of the duplicate genes for alpha-amylase (Amy) in Drosophila melanogaster were examined in the anterior midgut and posterior midgut regions of mature flies. The levels of amylase activity and amylase protein, as well as the abundance of amylase-specific RNA, were quantified. All 3 parameters of Amy expression were concordant. Results indicate that the effects of both mapP and dietary glucose are exerted at the level of amylase RNA. However, the tissue-specific effects of mapP are restricted to the posterior midgut and can therefore be distinguished from the effects of glucose in food medium, which influences amylase RNA levels in both the anterior and posterior midgut regions. Our data suggest that, in large part, strain-specific effects of dietary glucose can be explained on the basis of alternate alleles at the mapP locus in different homozygous strains of flies. Levels of amylase RNA in tissue extracts of flies from an amylase-null strain were also measured. Low levels were observed in both anterior and posterior midgut extracts. These were unresponsive to dietary conditions.