The core-promoter factor TRF2 mediates a Fruitless action to masculinize neurobehavioral traits in Drosophila

Zahid Sadek Chowdhury, Kosei Sato and Daisuke Yamamoto ()
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Zahid Sadek Chowdhury: Tohoku University Graduate School of Life Sciences
Kosei Sato: Tohoku University Graduate School of Life Sciences
Daisuke Yamamoto: Tohoku University Graduate School of Life Sciences

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract In fruit flies, the male-specific fruitless (fru) gene product FruBM plays a central role in establishing the neural circuitry for male courtship behavior by orchestrating the transcription of genes required for the male-type specification of individual neurons. We herein identify the core promoter recognition factor gene Trf2 as a dominant modifier of fru actions. Trf2 knockdown in the sexually dimorphic mAL neurons leads to the loss of a male-specific neurite and a reduction in male courtship vigor. TRF2 forms a repressor complex with FruBM, strongly enhancing the repressor activity of FruBM at the promoter region of the robo1 gene, whose function is required for inhibiting the male-specific neurite formation. In females that lack FruBM, TRF2 stimulates robo1 transcription. Our results suggest that TRF2 switches its own role from an activator to a repressor of transcription upon binding to FruBM, thereby enabling the ipsilateral neurite formation only in males.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01623-z

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