PgmNr D1463: Split-ends is required for Ecdysone production during Larva development.

Authors:
Sattar Soltani; Qiuxiang Ou; Kirst King-Jones


Institutes
Alberta, Edmonton, CA.


Keyword: repressors/corepressors

Abstract:

Steroid hormones coordinate many biological processes during development, metabolism and reproduction. Drosophila provides an excellent platform for studying steroid hormone regulation, since many studies have examined the role of ecdysone, the major insect steroid, and its roles during the development of the fly. Larval ecdysone production occurs in the prothoracic gland (PG) and is carried out by a group of well-examined enzymes that are encoded by the “Halloween” genes. Although the enzymatic reactions carried out by the Halloween enzymes are fairly well characterized, little is known about the molecular and genetic factors regulating this pathway. We report here that the split-ends gene is required for ecdysone regulation in the PG. Split-ends is a transcriptional co-repressor and that harbors three N-terminal RNA-binding motifs and a highly conserved C-terminal SPOC domain. PG-specific knock down of split-ends via RNAi resulted in developmental arrest during late third instar larvae, with no animals progressing to the pupal stage. Our data suggest that the down-regulation of split-ends affects ecdysone production due mainly to altering the expression level of Halloween genes. Furthermore, arrested animals can be rescued when fed with ecdysone or precursors thereof. Taken together, we provide new insights into how a co-repressor can modulate ecdysone production during Drosophila development.



Flybase Genetic Index:
1. FlyBase gene symbol: Dmel\spen; FBgn: FBgn0016977