Abstract
We describe here aDrosophilagene,tosca(tos), that is specifically expressed in the female germline.tosmRNA accumulates selectively within the pro-oocyte in germarial region 2 and persists throughout oogenesis. In the early embryo, the maternally suppliedtosmRNA is evenly distributed at the syncytial blastoderm stage, but is excluded from the forming cells when cellularization begins.tosproduct is the firstDrosophilamember of the RAD2 protein family, a group of related DNA repair nucleases conserved from yeast to humans. Within the family, Tos is more closely related to ExoI, aSchizosaccharomyces pombe5′ → 3′ double-stranded DNA exonuclease specifically induced in meiotic prophase I. The definite oocyte localization oftostranscript during meiosis and its ubiquitous distribution in early embryos suggest thattosmay play a role in mismatch repair during genetic recombination and early cleavage divisions.
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