Abstract

The foraging (for) gene has been extensively studied in many species for its functions in development, physiology, and behavior. It is common for genes that influence behavior and development to be essential genes, and for has been found to be an essential gene in both fruit flies and mammals, with for mutants dying before reaching the adult stage. However, the biological process underlying the lethality associated with this gene is not known. Here, we show that in Drosophila melanogaster, some but not all gene products of for are essential for survival. Specifically, we show that promoter 3 of for, but not promoters 1, 2, and 4 are required for survival past pupal stage. We use full and partial genetic deletions of for, and temperature-restricted knock-down of the gene to further investigate the stage of lethality. While deletion analysis shows that flies lacking for die at the end of pupal development, as pharate adults, temperature-restricted knock-down shows that for is only required at the start of pupal development, for normal adult emergence (AE) and viability. We further show that the inability of these mutants to emerge from their pupal cases is linked to deficiencies in emergence behaviors, caused by a possible energy deficiency, and finally, that the lethality of for mutants seems to be linked to protein isoform P3, transcribed from for promoter 3.

摘要

觅食( for ) 基因因其在发育、生理和行为方面的功能已在许多物种中得到广泛研究。影响行为和发育的基因通常是必需基因，并且已经发现它是果蝇和哺乳动物的必需基因，突变体在达到成年阶段之前就死亡。然而，与该基因相关的致死性背后的生物学过程尚不清楚。在这里，我们表明在黑腹果蝇中，一些但不是所有的for基因产物对生存至关重要。具体来说，我们展示了for 的启动子 3，但不是启动子 1、2 和 4 是超过蛹期生存所必需的。我们使用for的全部和部分基因缺失，以及基因的温度限制敲除来进一步研究致死阶段。虽然缺失分析表明缺乏for的果蝇在蛹发育结束时死亡，但作为 pharate 成虫，温度限制的击倒表明，对于正常的成虫出现 (AE) 和生存能力，仅在蛹发育开始时才需要 for。我们进一步表明，这些突变体无法从它们的蛹中出现与出现行为的缺陷有关，由可能的能量不足引起，最后，对于突变体似乎与蛋白质亚型 P3 相关，从启动子 3转录而来。