Scute Gene Research Articles

Correlated Evolution of Two Copulatory Organs via a Single cis-Regulatory Nucleotide Change

Diverse traits often covary between species [1-3]. The possibility that a single mutation could contribute to the evolution of several characters between species [3] is rarely investigated as relatively few cases are dissected at the nucleotide level. Drosophila santomea has evolved additional sex comb sensory teeth on its legs and has lost two sensory bristles on its genitalia. We present evidence that a single nucleotide substitution in an enhancer of the scute gene contributes to both changes. The mutation alters a binding site for the Hox protein Abdominal-B in the developing genitalia, leading to bristle loss, and for another factor in the developing leg, leading to bristle gain. Our study suggests that morphological evolution between species can occur through a single nucleotide change affecting several sexually dimorphic traits. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Correlated Evolution of Two Copulatory Organs via a Single Cis-Regulatory Nucleotide Change

Diverse traits often covary between species. The possibility that a single mutation could contribute to the evolution of several characters between species is rarely investigated as relatively few cases are dissected at the nucleotide level. Drosophila santomea has evolved additional sex comb sensory teeth on its legs and has lost two sensory bristles on its genitalia. We found that a single nucleotide substitution in an enhancer of the scute gene contributes to both changes. The mutation alters a binding site for the Hox protein Abdominal-B in the developing genitalia, leading to bristle loss, and for another factor in the developing leg, leading to bristle gain. Our study shows that morphological evolution between species can occur through a single nucleotide change affecting several sexually dimorphic traits.

The Complex Tale of the achaete–scute Complex: A Paradigmatic Case in the Analysis of Gene Organization and Function During Development

The achaete-scute gene complex (AS-C) contains four genes encoding transcription factors of the bHLH family, achaete, scute, lethal of scute, and asense located in 40 kb of DNA containing multiple cis-regulatory position-specific enhancers. These genes play a key role in the commitment of epidermal cells toward a neural fate, promoting the formation of both sensory organs in the peripheral nervous system (bristles) of the adult and of neuroblasts in the central nervous system of the embryo. The analysis of the AS-C initially focused on the variations in positional specificity of effects of achaete (ac) and scute (sc) alleles on macrochaete bristle pattern in the Drosophila adult epidermis, and from there it evolved as a key entry point into understanding the molecular bases of pattern formation and cell commitment. In this perspective, we describe how the study of the AS-C has contributed to the understanding of eukaryotic gene organization and the dissection of the developmental mechanisms underlying pattern formation.

Ascl3 expression marks a progenitor population of both acinar and ductal cells in mouse salivary glands

Ascl3, also know as Sgn1, is a member of the mammalian achaete scute ( Mash) gene family of transcription factors, which have been implicated in cell fate specification and differentiation. In the mouse salivary gland, expression of Ascl3 is restricted to a subset of duct cells. Salivary gland function depends on the secretory acinar cells, which are responsible for saliva formation, and duct cells, which modify the saliva and conduct it to the oral cavity. The salivary gland ducts are also the putative site of progenitor cells in the adult gland. Using a Cre recombinase-mediated reporter system, we followed the fate of Ascl3-expressing cells after the introduction of an EGFP–Cre expression cassette into the Ascl3 locus by homologous recombination. Lineage tracing shows that these cells are progenitors of both acinar and ductal cell types in all three major salivary glands. In the differentiated progeny, expression of Ascl3 is down-regulated. These data directly demonstrate a progenitor–progeny relationship between duct cells and the acinar cell compartment, and identify a population of multipotent progenitor cells, marked by expression of Ascl3, which is capable of generating both gland cell types. We conclude that Ascl3-expressing cells contribute to the maintenance of the adult salivary glands.

NF-κB/Rel-Mediated Regulation of the Neural Fate in Drosophila

Two distinct roles are described for Dorsal, Dif and Relish, the three NF-κB/Rel proteins of Drosophila, in the development of the peripheral nervous system. First, these factors regulate transcription of scute during the singling out of sensory organ precursors from clusters of cells expressing the proneural genes achaete and scute. This effect is possibly mediated through binding sites for NF-κB/Rel proteins in a regulatory module of the scute gene required for maintenance of scute expression in precursors as well as repression in cells surrounding precursors. Second, genetic evidence suggests that the receptor Toll-8, Relish, Dif and Dorsal, and the caspase Dredd pathway are active over the entire imaginal disc epithelium, but Toll-8 expression is excluded from sensory organ precursors. Relish promotes rapid turnover of transcripts of the target genes scute and asense through an indirect, post-transcriptional mechanism. We propose that this buffering of gene expression levels serves to keep the neuro-epithelium constantly poised for neurogenesis.

Small Change: Study of Enhancer Supports Evolution Model

To the layperson, one fruit fly may look pretty much like another. But there are, in fact, nearly 4,000 distinct species, differing in such observable characteristics as the pattern of veins on the wings or the position of bristles on the thorax. These genetically controlled differences have evolved over millions of years, since the first ancestral fruit fly arose. And it’s not just flies, of course—every species has evolved a unique form, correlated with subtle but telling differences in their genes. Despite the ubiquity of this phenomenon, the exact genetic underpinnings of the morphological differences between two closely related species are known in very few cases. In a new study, Sylvain Marcellini and Pat Simpson explore the sequences controlling the minutest of differences between two fruit fly species and show that the appearance of two versus four thoracic bristles is due to small sequence changes in the regulatory region of a single gene shared between the two species. Adult flies bear numerous mechanosensory hairs, or bristles, in rows along the back of the thorax. Drosophila melanogaster bears two such bristles, while D. quadrilineata bears four. Bristle formation is due to expression of the scute gene, which is under the control of numerous genetic sequences, including so-called enhancers—nearby DNA sequences that bind transcription factors and enhance gene expression. One, called the dorsocentral enhancer (DCE), has been well characterized in flies and is known to interact with a transcription factor called Pannier. When the authors compared the sequences of the DCEs of D. quadrilineata and D. melanogaster, they discovered that both contained binding sites for Pannier, but the sequences were significantly different in other respects, consistent with the 60 million years of evolution separating them. By staining developing flies of both species to reveal scute expression, they showed that the D. quadrilineata scute is expressed more anteriorly than the D. melanogaster scute, in exactly the locations that later sprout the extra bristles. When the authors inserted the D. quadrilineata DCE into D. melanogaster, the scute gene was active more anteriorly, and the flies developed four, instead of two, bristles, mimicking the phenotype of the D. quadrilineata fly. Importantly, this effect could not be reproduced when the control DCE from a different two-bristle fly was inserted. These results provide evidence for a common model of morphologic evolution, in which slight changes in enhancers lead to slight changes in the expression domains of specific genes, leading to slight changes in the phenotype of the organism. Such small individual changes don’t necessarily alone lead to speciation, but the accumulation of such differences, combined with and reinforcing the behavioral isolation of two diverging groups, may result in the creation of a new species. While this model is widely accepted, actual examples of enhancer-driven phenotypic differences have been scarce, and so these results provide important evidence to strengthen it.

A conserved trans-regulatory landscape for scute expression on the notum of cyclorraphous Diptera

Bristles on the notum of many cyclorraphous flies are arranged into species-specific stereotyped patterns. The positions of bristles correlate with differences in the spatial expression of the scute (sc) gene in those species examined so far. However, a major upstream activator of scute, Pannier (Pnr), is expressed in a conserved domain over the entire medial notum. Here we examine the expression patterns in Calliphora vicina of stripe (sr), u-shaped (ush), caupolican (caup) and wingless (wg), genes known to modify the activity of Pnr or to act downstream of Pnr in Drosophila. We find that, with minor differences, their expression patterns are conserved. This suggests that the function of a trans-regulatory network of genes is relatively unchanged in derived Diptera and that many differences are likely to be due to changes in cis-regulatory sequences of scute.

Genetic Analysis of Bristle Loss in Hybrids between Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans Provides Evidence for Divergence of cis-Regulatory Sequences in the achaete–scute Gene Complex

The two closely related species of Drosophila, D. melanogaster and D. simulans, display an identical bristle pattern on the notum, but hybrids between the two are lacking a variable number of bristles. We show that the loss is temperature-dependent and provide evidence for two periods of temperature sensitivity. A first period of heat sensitivity occurs during larval development and corresponds to the time when the prepattern of expression of genes whose products activate achaete–scute in the proneural clusters preceding bristle precursor formation is established. A second period of cold sensitivity corresponds to the time of emergence of the bristle precursor cells and the maintenance of their neural fate, a process requiring high levels of Achaete–Scute. Expression of achaete–scute at these two critical periods depends on cis-regulatory elements of the achaete–scute complex (AS-C). The differences between males, which have only one copy of the X-linked AS-C from D. simulans, and females, which have copies from both parental species, are compared, together with the effects of crossing in different rearrangements of the D. melanogaster AS-C that delete regulatory and/or coding sequences. We provide evidence that bristle loss in the hybrids may result from a decrease in the level of transcription at the AS-C and argue that interaction between trans-acting factors and cis-regulatory elements within the AS-C has diverged between the two species.

The Vestigial Gene of Drosophila Melanogaster is Involved in the Formation of the Peripheral Nervous System: Genetic Interactions with the Scute Gene

The vestigial (vg) gene of Drosophila melanogaster encodes a novel nuclear protein which is required for wing formation but its function is not restricted to this developmental process. In this report, we have examined the possible role of vestigial in the formation of the peripheral nervous system. We found that most vestigial mutants display ectopic or missing macrochaetae. We also show that vestigial interacts in a dose dependant manner with different alleles of the scute gene and with the extramacrochaetae gene and that mis-expression of the vestigial gene in the wing disc increases the domain of scute expression and allows the formation of supernumerary ectopic bristles. From these results, we conclude that vestigial affects scute expression and plays a role in the differentiation of the peripheral nervous system.

Phenotypic reversion of the gypsy-induced mutation sc D1 of Drosophila melanogaster by replicative transposition of a sc enhancer to the yellow gene and by mutations in the enhancer of yellow and zeste loci

Both mutations of Drosophila melanogaster in the y2scD1 strain are caused by the insertion of gypsy, but the scD1 mutation contains, in addition, an insertion of the jockey mobile element at a distance of 1.8 kb from gypsy. The su(Hw)-binding region in the copy of gypsy in scD1 inhibits scute expression in several specific areas of the epithelium, and in particular, blocks the formation of anterior notopleural (ANP) bristles. The y2 reversions y+2MC and y2#+9 restore the formation of ANP bristles. Molecular analysis revealed that both revertants were induced by transposition into the gypsy element at the yellow locus of jockey and an adjacent 1.8-kb region of the scute gene which contains an enhancer responsible for the development of ANP bristles. The duplicated enhancer is not insulated by the su(Hw)-binding region and can interact with the scute promoter in spite of the presence of two other promoters between them. Hypomorphic mutation in the e(y)2 gene and zOp6 allele partially inhibit ANP bristle formation in flies with y+2MC and y2+9 mutations. In addition, we found that mutations in the e(y)1, e(y)3 and zeste genes may interfere with transcriptional insulation by the su(Hw)-binding region in the scD1 allele.

Cloning and characterization of the scute (sc) gene of Drosophila subobscura.

The scute (sc) gene, a member of the achaete-scute complex of Drosophila melanogaster, has dual functions: sisterless (sis-b) function required for sex determination and dosage compensation and scute function, which is involved in neurogenesis. The sc homologue of D. subobscura was cloned. It lacks introns and encodes a single 1.7-kb transcript slightly larger than that of D. melanogaster (1.6 kb). The sc protein of D. subobscura is slightly larger than that of D. melanogaster (382 vs. 345 amino acids). Sequence comparisons between both species show the Sc protein to have a highly conserved bHLH domain. Outside this domain, amino acid replacements are not randomly distributed. Two additional conserved domains, of 20 and 36 amino acids, are present near the C-terminal end. They may represent domains confering specificity upon the Sc protein with respect to other proteins of the achaete-scute complex. In its 3' untranslated region, Sc RNA contains uridine stretches, putative Sxl protein DNA-binding sites. The D. subobscura Sc protein can cooperate with other D. melanogaster bHLH proteins because D. subobscura sc supplies sis-b function when introduced into D. melanogaster transgenic flies mutant for sc.

Transcriptional activation by heterodimers of the achaete-scute and daughterless gene products of Drosophila.

The achaete-scute complex (AS-C) and the daughterless (da) genes encode helix-loop-helix proteins which have been shown to interact in vivo and to be required for neurogenesis. We show in vitro that heterodimers of three AS-C products with DA bind DNA strongly, whereas DA homodimers bind weakly and homo or heterocombinations of AS-C products not at all. Proteins unable to dimerize did not bind DNA. Target sequences for the heterodimers were found in the promoters of the hunchback and the achaete genes. Using sequences of the former we show that the DNA binding results obtained in vitro fully correlate with the ability of different combinations to activate the expression of a reporter gene in yeast. Embryos deficient for the lethal of scute gene fail to activate hunchback in some neural lineages in a pattern consistent with the lack of a member of a multigene family.

Regulation of achaete-scute gene expression and sensory organ pattern formation in the Drosophila wing.

Adult Drosophila possess a large number of sensory organs, including large and small bristles and other types of sensilla, each arising from a single mother cell at particular positions in a reproducible pattern. Genetic studies have shown that sensory organ pattern formation is partly coordinated by a number of structurally similar, potential heterodimer-forming, helix-loop-helix (HLH) regulatory proteins. Here, by localizing regulatory gene expression during the development of normal and mutant imaginal discs, we show that two positive regulators of sensory neurogenesis, the proneural achaete and scute proteins, initially trans-activate each other and are transiently expressed in identical patterns, including clusters of wing ectodermal cells and the individual sensory mother cells that arise from them. Two negative regulators, hairy and extramacrochaete, suppress sensory neurogenesis by selectively repressing achaete and scute gene expression, respectively, but in different spatial domains and at different developmental stages. Surprisingly, we also find that the level of achaete-scute activity influences the level of hairy expression, thereby providing feedback control upon achaete-scute activity and sensory organ formation. Some or all of these interactions may involve specific dimerization reactions between different combinations of HLH proteins.

The scute (T4) gene acts as a numerator element of the X:a signal that determines the state of activity of sex-lethal in Drosophila.

The ratio of X chromosomes to sets of autosomes (X:A) is the primary genetic signal that determines sex and dosage compensation in Drosophila. The gene Sex-lethal (Sxl) receives this signal and is responsible for the execution of the alternative developmental programmes of males and females. We have found that the scute (T4) gene, which is involved in neurogenesis, also plays a role in the activation of Sxl. The following results suggest that scute (T4) may be a numerator element of the X:A signal: scute (T4) mutations show female-specific lethality. There are female-specific lethal synergistic interactions between sis-a, a previously described numerator element, and mutants for T4. The female lethality is suppressed by SxlM1, a constitutive allele which expresses an active Sxl product independently of the X:A ratio. The Hw685 mutation, which overexpresses T4, is lethal to males with a duplication of sis-a. This lethality is suppressed by either Sxlf1, or the T4 point mutation sc10-1. There are female-specific lethal interactions between sc10-1 and daughter-less (da), a gene needed maternally for Sxl to become active. The sc10-1 mutation masculinizes triploid intersexes.

Deletion analysis of the achaete-scute locus of Drosophila melanogaster.

The achaete-scute gene complex (AS-C) is involved in the development of the central and peripheral (sensory chaetae, sensilla) nervous system. To assess the contribution of the different parts of the complex in the generation of the adult chaetae pattern, we have determined the phenotypes and molecular positions of the breakpoints of 74 terminal deficiencies of the X chromosome. According to these and previous data, the AS-C is organized, distally to proximally, as follows: the achaete region, with most of its DNA (10 kb) located upstream from the putative achaete (T5) gene; an intermediate region, approximately 18 kb long, whose deletion only weakly affects the scute function; and the scute region, with most of the DNA critical for its function extending 4-5 kb upstream and 50 kb downstream of the putative scute (T4) gene. The DNA extending far upstream of the T5 gene and downstream of the T4 gene may provide chromatin conformations adequate for efficient expression of these genes. However, in the case of the T4 gene, the available data suggest the presence of a small number of elements, scattered in the long downstream region, that would respond to topological cues and cis-activate this gene in specific anatomical regions.

Structural and functional analysis of the scute locus in Drosophila melanogaster

The functional expression of 12 scute alleles in homozygotes and compounds of Drosophila melanogaster at 14°, 22°, 30°C is analysed. Based on the data obtained, linear maps for bristles and mutations are built. The basic features of the maps, clustering and polarity, are invariable with respect to temperature, scute gene dosage and cross direction. In addition local dominance of the norm over bristle reduction was produced by the scute mutation; different types of complementation reactions were established for each bristle. The gene scute is treated as an operon-like system, composed of 3-4 cistrons with each controlling the formation of bristles on a particular region of the fly's body. This model argues well with the structure of maps constructed and implies a post-translational level of initial events of bristle-formation process.

Spontaneous inverted exchange betweenX andY inDrosophila melanogaster

1. The case is reported of a chromosome termedscYL formed by rearrangement between theY-chromosome and anX containing thescS1 inversion. The rearranged chromosome has on one side of its centromere the whole of the long arm of the normalY and on the other side a small section invisible in mitotic stages, containing the left distal end of theX, with the scute gene and the normal alleles of genes to the left of it.