Fruitless
| fruitless protein ( Drosophila melanogaster ) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mass / length primary structure | 955 amino acids | |
| Isoforms | 10 | |
| Identifier | ||
| Gene name (s) | fru (FlyBase) | |
| External IDs | ||
| Occurrence | ||
| Parent taxon | Two-winged | |
The gene, called fruitless , codes for various transcription factors that help determine the number of nerve cells and their connections in the examined region of the brain . Fruitless influences whether typically male or typically female connections are formed in the brain of fruit flies . The transcription factors each contain a zinc finger motif .
fruitless is expressed and translated into proteins in both male and female Drosophila flies ; The differences are less in the gene itself than more in the gender-specific splicing of the pre-mRNA. For example, fruitless causes more active behavior in males, which is necessary for courtship. It initiates almost all behavioral steps in courtship, which if fruitless are manipulated only appear choppy or incorrectly. In females, it causes the production of gender-specific pheromones, which are helpful in initiating copulation.
The team led by the Japanese researcher Ken-Ichi Kimura from Hokkaidō University reports in the science magazine Science that they discovered this circuit in the brain of fruit flies. This decides whether an animal develops heterosexual or homosexual tendencies. And they found that the inactive male fruitless protein prevents programmed cell death of certain nerve cells . These neurons , which are located near the antenna lobe, form a network that apparently controls the mating behavior. If the network is intact, the animals turn to female partners.
When the Japanese researchers equipped the antenna lobe of female flies with this gene, the behavior pattern typical of males arose. The flies tried to mate with females.
literature
- Nature, Vol. 438, p. 229
- Demir et al., 2005. 121: 785-794
Individual evidence
Web links
- fruitless in Interactive Fly (Engl.)
- fruitless in the FlyBase (Engl.)